Mick Hartley

After that report on antisemitism at the Toronto University faculty of medicine, here we go again – this time in Adelaide:

The University of Adelaide was in the headlines recently when On Dit, the university’s student magazine, published an article calling for “Death to Israel.”

But this case is only the tip of the iceberg. It reflects a pattern of behaviour that has gone largely unnoticed by the university’s wider community, resulting in Adelaide University becoming one of the most hostile places for Jewish students in Australia.

Some Jewish students will not return to the university next year because of the sense of siege they have experienced. Others report avoiding campus and suffering stress symptoms directly attributable to the abuse they have suffered.

Jewish student Jonathan Iadarola says his experiences of antisemitism at the university have “greatly affected” his life.

“I have had trouble sleeping, have experienced serious anxiety when walking around campus and have tried to avoid being on campus as much as possible this last year,” he said. “I was called a ‘dirty Zionist’ on campus and was targeted by other students who shouted ‘Death to Israel’ around me after I spoke up against it.”

Antisemitism on campus has so affected Jewish student Gracie Tanner that she will not be returning to the university. Tanner said that she “cannot support a university that does not call out antisemitism”.

Other students and staff told Plus61J Media that they do not identify themselves as Jewish at the university due to fear of being targeted.

I was first a student at Adelaide University between 2010 and 2015. I remember when the topic of the Holocaust came up in a tutorial. A student said, “But surely the Jews did something to deserve it.” Nobody challenged this comment. Even the tutor did not intervene….