The fightback against campus antisemitism has begun - The Jewish Chronicle

Britain’s universities are in crisis. Antisemitism is surging, pro-Israel speakers are silenced while radical anti-Israel voices are amplified. Many students fear voicing their beliefs due to the risk of academic or social reprisal. It is in this destructive crucible that our future civil servants, politicians, and industry leaders are beginning to establish their policy positions and worldviews. It is against this bleak backdrop that the fightback has begun.

At the Pinsker Centre, we believe that the reaction to difficult issues should be dialogue, not division – and that is why the vast majority of the students we work with are not Jewish. We aim to empower students who want to break this cycle and make real change on campus and beyond. We, therefore, are dedicated to giving students the resources and education to have difficult conversations on campus, especially where Israel is concerned.

Thankfully, we have found that there exists a large and growing constituency of students not interested in encampments and boycotts. These students come from across the political spectrum, and are standing up to the hostility they have witnessed, particularly in the wake of October 7. Rather than resorting to vandalism or hateful chants, they are channelling their energy into constructive action; combating hatred and extremism, fostering civil discourse, and creating space for difficult conversations.

At the end of March, we visited Washington DC with some of these campus leaders, as part of our Pinsker Centre Policy Fellowship. This elite bespoke programme takes 15 student leaders selected from the hundreds we work with each year, and is designed to equip them with the knowledge and skills to make change on campus and beyond by improving their rhetoric, writing, and analysis skills, all while bolstering their foreign policy knowledge. Whether it be through penning opinion pieces, interviewing high-profile names in foreign policy for our podcast or events, or by attending exclusive seminars with leaders in politics, journalism, and policymaking, the programme is an unrivalled opportunity for students interested in foreign policy.

In taking this delegation to Washington, we had a clear mission: to provide students with first-hand experience and deep understanding to bring back to their campuses, and to cultivate the next generation of well-informed, policy-driven leaders.

Over a three-day seminar, our group engaged with key figures in policy and security. We met with members of Congress, including Republican Senator Tom Cotton and Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, as well as the White House’s Middle East Peace office. Experts we met discussed Israel’s right to self-defence, the reciprocal nature of its relationships with Western allies, and its role in broader foreign policy challenges, such as the fight against extremism and Iran’s threat.

We are immensely proud of our delegation of curious students, who are already at the forefront of the fight for open and honest dialogue at Britain’s leading universities. They are presidents of political and diplomatic societies, budding journalists, and leaders of campus interfaith initiatives. While they hail from different backgrounds, political stands, and religions, they came to Washington with a unified purpose; seeking education and insight to take back to their academic institutions.

We passionately believe that the cross-party and interreligious dialogue that flourishes in our programming is a serious alternative vision for beleaguered UK campuses. Reflecting on the DC Seminar, and the Fellowship more generally, one student said: “The fellowship has encouraged me to have confidence in my potential. It has encouraged me to discuss and write about topics which I might not have felt confident tackling. It has encouraged me to converse and debate with individuals who I might not have had the confidence to approach and question.”

The sheer demand for our programmes keeps us hopeful. We ran our first Policy Fellowship programme in 2021, and since then, the number of applications each year has risen by over 650 per cent. In recent years, we have doubled the number of non-Jewish students we take to Israel every summer and our trips are still oversubscribed. Even in our informal, no-commitment programming (campus events open to all), we’ve seen record attendances at our London library and in Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and other prestigious universities.

There is now a real opportunity to beat back the forces of intolerance and anti-intellectualism on campus by arming talented students with the knowledge and resources they are desperately seeking. The students we work with are our country’s future. Their commitment and courage will ensure that our campuses, institutions and, ultimately, our society, will be safer, more reasonable, and more just.

Benjamin Freeman & Mackenzie France are the senior leadership team at the Pinsker Centre. Applications for the Pinsker Centre Policy Fellowship opened in mid-April