The Impact of DEI Initiatives on Campus Antisemitism: Insights from a Former DEI Director

The shocking rise of antisemitism on college campuses has captivated millions of Americans in recent weeks. However, as someone who worked as a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) director, I wasn’t surprised. In fact, I witnessed instances of antisemitism regularly during my two years in that role. It became clear to me that toxic DEI ideology actively encourages animosity towards Israel and the Jewish people.

In 2021, I was hired as the head of the DEI department at De Anza College in Silicon Valley. On paper, I appeared to be the perfect fit due to being a black woman. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of trying to foster a truly inclusive learning environment for all, including Jewish students. Little did I know that a toxic form of DEI, more accurately referred to as “critical social justice,” demanded the opposite.

Prior to my arrival, Jewish students at the college had endured a series of hateful incidents. For example, a Hanukkah party lacked any Hanukkah imagery but featured numerous pro-Palestinian protesters. Additionally, the student body passed resolutions advocating for the divestment from Israel and criticizing the country’s actions. Multiple Jewish students confided in me, describing the campus as an antisemitic environment.

I attempted to rectify the situation by hosting Jewish speakers on campus to promote diversity and inclusion through the sharing of different perspectives. However, critics labeled me a “dirty Zionist,” and the school refused to promote these events. I then urged the administration to issue a strong condemnation of antisemitism, but my request was denied. Campus leaders and colleagues even advised against raising concerns about Jewish inclusion or antisemitism, asserting that Jews were “white oppressors” and that our role as faculty and staff was to “decenter whiteness.”

I was taken aback, but I shouldn’t have been. At its worst, DEI operates on the belief that the world is divided into two groups: oppressors and the oppressed. Jews are automatically placed in the oppressor category, while Israel is deemed a “genocidal, settler, colonialist state.” In this distorted viewpoint, criticizing Israel and the Jewish people is not only acceptable but praiseworthy, just like attacking America and white people. Failure to do so is seen as supporting racist oppression. I have never encountered a more hostile environment towards any racial, ethnic, or religious group.

Ultimately, I was fired from De Anza College, and I suspect that my defense of Jewish students played a role. However, I soon discovered that my experience was not an isolated incident. Faculty and students from campuses across the country have shared with me how DEI ideology fuels antisemitism. A study even revealed that 96% of Israel-focused tweets from campus DEI staff criticized the country. This was before Hamas launched its recent brutal assault on Israel.

Now, colleges and universities embracing DEI are harming Jewish students through their silence, moral equivocation regarding terrorism against Israel, or outright support for terrorists. Many DEI-affiliated student groups are actively siding with Hamas. For example, “White Coats for Black Lives,” a national group of medical students present in over 100 universities, recently declared their long-standing support for Palestine’s struggle for liberation shortly after Hamas murdered Jewish families in their beds.

How can a Jewish patient trust a medical trainee or professional who subscribes to such blatant antisemitic hatred? It’s tantamount to threatening their lives and raises questions about the fitness of such individuals to practice medicine.

The outpouring of antisemitic hatred we are witnessing is a direct consequence of DEI’s insistence that Jews are oppressors. What began as verbal attacks has now escalated to defending and inciting violent attacks. When an ideology diminishes an entire group and accuses them of perpetrating immense injustice, division and anger are inevitable. Sadly, this has unleashed a fire of antisemitism that is currently burning brightly on college campuses. Immediate action is necessary to extinguish it before it spreads further and inflicts more harm.

A logical starting point would be for administrators and lawmakers to remove toxic DEI from higher education. Without doing so, true diversity and inclusion on campuses will be unattainable, and the hatred towards Jews will only intensify.

Tabia Lee, EdD, is a senior fellow at Do No Harm.