A Jewish high school in New Jersey says it will no longer allow colleges to speak to its students unless the institution provides detailed plans for ensuring the safety of Jewish students on campus.
The leadership of the Torah Academy of Bergen County made the announcement last week, citing a spike in antisemitic activity on college campuses that has also led to a rise in threats against Jewish students. The spike in incidents began after a series of Oct. 7 attacks by the terrorist group Hamas against Israel that pro-Palestinian student groups in the United States have described as an act of resistance. The attacks and Israel's subsequent military response have claimed thousands of lives.
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The statement was signed by Rabbi Shlomo Stochel, the school's head; Rabbi Steven Finkelstein, the associate principal; Rabbi Joshua Kahn, the rosh yeshiva; and Keren Weinberger, the director of college guidance.
"The conditions for Jewish students on many college campuses is intolerable," the school's leadership said in the announcement. "We are carefully monitoring the statements that universities have (or have not) issued, scrutinizing actions that college administrators have taken and hearing directly from our alumni about the discrimination they are currently experiencing."
The four school officials said the recent spate of incidents required them to cease inviting representatives from various colleges to speak to students, and any college that would like to speak to students at the academy must show that it is prepared to protect Jewish students.
"Before college representatives can enter our building, they must bring a statement from their university leadership detailing their plans to protect and maintain the safety and security of our graduates on their campuses as Jews," the officials said. "We will continue to communicate to each college our serious concerns about the hostile environment permitted on their campuses based on the trends and incidents we are so closely tracking."
Rabbi Joshua Kahn told the Washington Examiner that the leadership of the school made the policy change out of a sense of responsibility to ensure the safety of their students. He said the school has been monitoring how colleges are responding to antisemitism and threats against Jewish students.
"In monitoring the statements and the actions we've [focused] on the safety of our students," Kahn said. "Free speech is one thing, but we all know threatening speech is a different thing. And schools need to be able to distinguish between those two and not just in lip service but in actual action."
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Kahn said the school's change in policy was not made in response to student and parent concerns, but the academy's families have responded quite positively to it.
"I have children, and every student here I feel a responsibility to them as a parent would," he said. "We need to graduate our students into a world where they could be safe."