As you read this, tens of thousands of Jewish students around the country will be receiving acceptance letters which will inform where they choose to attend university. Whereas in the past, choosing where to study was merely a matter of which school had the best program for one’s particular interests, and which environment – urban or rural – a student preferred, the decision has now become a maze, or possibly, a minefield, due to the percolating antisemitism that has emerged on college campuses, which erupted with volcanic ferocity after Oct. 7, 2023.

We never expected to write the book “10 Things Every Jew Needs to Know Before They Go To College.” We never thought such a book would be necessary. But after everything we’ve witnessed — from our own experiences as students, to what’s happening now on college campuses, to what we’ve experienced as immigrants to Israel – we realized this was a book we had to write, especially after Kimberly Brooks, an artist and parent of two college students at the time, approached us with the idea to create this illustrated guide, well before Oct. 7. Jewish students don’t need a law degree to defend themselves on campus, but they do need basic literacy in the story of our people and the geopolitics surrounding Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people. Whether or not they wish to be activists, or choose to do anything even remotely related to politics or international relations while on campus, Jewish students will be asked about Israel and Zionism, simply because they are Jewish.  While we should all call out this racist expectation that has become so common, as it still persists, Jewish students should be prepared, and should have a cursory understanding of all aspects of their peoplehood, its history, and its contemporary life, both in Israel and around the world. 

Emily’s Story

I grew up in a home that was generally supportive of Israel, but wasn’t religious. Only when I came to university did I fully understand how much hatred there was against not only Israel, but the Jewish community – something that honestly bewildered me at the time. Of course, Zionism was something I supported in a general sense, but as a teen it wasn’t something I had ever given a great deal of thought to. All that changed when I attended the University of Southern California (USC), a school I had been excited to attend, a school that was supposed to be one of the best places to get an education in the United States.

Instead, USC was the first place I ever encountered antisemitism. And I’ll be honest — I didn’t believe it at first. How could antisemitism still be a thing in the 21st century, in the United States, in a major academic institution? The idea seemed ridiculous. But then I saw it with my own eyes.

The Moment I Knew I Had to Fight

It was “Apartheid Week,” the so-called “hate week” led by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). I remember being absolutely shocked. The level of vitriol directed at Israel and at Jews who dared to support Israel was something I had never seen before. The outright lies being spread about Israel, as well as the Jewish people, weren’t just disturbing — they were dangerous. This wasn’t an “intellectual discussion” about policy. It wasn’t about human rights or justice, it wasn’t even pro-Palestinian. It was a full-scale demonization campaign designed to incite hatred against Jewish and pro-Israel students.

That’s when I got involved. I couldn’t just stand by and watch this happen in silence. First, I began attending the anti-Israel events to listen to what they had to say. They didn’t yet know me; at almost every meeting, they would have a token Jewish member of their group talk to me “as a Jew” and describe how awful Israel was. I started pushing back against the lies and exposing the people behind them as I became more involved with multiple Jewish and pro-Israel campus groups. That’s when my first moment came. When SJP planned a community-wide training for how to implement BDS in Los Angeles, I attended the lecture and witnessed them harass, shout at and expel a prominent Jewish leader – Roz Rothstein, the CEO of StandWithUs. This was, of course, illegal under the university rules, so I highlighted it and the university was forced to apologize. 

Since my time at USC, the situation has deteriorated drastically. It’s no longer just about biased professors or anti-Israel protests. Now, Jewish students are being physically attacked, threatened and driven out of campus life altogether, while in many cases the administrators do nothing.

USC, the same school where I first saw antisemitism firsthand, became a national scandal when Rose Ritch, a Jewish student leader, was bullied out of her position in student government simply for being a Zionist. The university did nothing. And it didn’t stop there.

USC also allowed Yasmeen Mashayekh, a student senator for DEI at the Viterbi School of Engineering, to keep her leadership position even after she tweeted “I want to kill every MF’ing Zionist” in 2021. Let that sink in: A student holding an official leadership role openly called for the murder of Jews, and USC took no action. 

After Oct. 7, USC has continued its downward spiral of abysmal failure to stop the spread of this vile antisemitism. USC Chabad, where I spent many Shabbats, has been vandalized, swastikas have been painted on campus, and on Oct. 7, 2024, SJP led a protest in support of Hamas during which they chanted for intifada and in favor of the Houthis – a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. But this isn’t just a problem at USC — it’s happening at schools across the country.

At one event at UC Berkeley, another school under investigation by the DOJ, approximately 50 police officers had to be present just to protect me. Think about that — 50 police officers, just to allow an Israeli journalist to speak at a university. No part of this is normal.

Even now, as a lecturer and a public speaker, I continue to be targeted by anti-Israel extremists at campus events. During my speaking tour with CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis) on Campus, we had to move locations multiple times, sometimes even an hour before an event, because of threats from anti-Israel activists. At one event at UC Berkeley, another school under investigation by the DOJ, approximately 50 police officers had to be present just to protect me. Think about that—50 police officers, just to allow an Israeli journalist to speak at a university. No part of this is normal.

How Living in Israel Changed My Perspective

After my time at USC, I made aliyah and moved to Israel, and that decision gave me an entirely new perspective on the fight we’re waging on campuses and in the Jewish diaspora. Because in Israel, you don’t just hear the rhetoric — you see the real-world consequences. You see how these anti-Israel disinformation campaigns lead directly to violence, and you see how they serve as a propaganda tool for terrorist organizations.

Don’t take my word for it — Hamas themselves have admitted that pro-Palestinian activism on Western campuses helps their cause. The U.S. intelligence community has confirmed that the Iranian regime is at least partially behind these anti-Israel campus movements. This is not an organic student movement — it’s part of a deliberate effort by foreign enemies of the United States to infiltrate and radicalize young people.

In my work as a human rights activist and an expert on Iran, I have seen just how urgent this fight is, especially after Oct. 7. One of the biggest problems Jewish students face today is that they don’t understand Zionism. They’ve been told it’s some kind of oppressive ideology, and they’re being bullied over it, when in reality, Zionism is the Jewish people’s nonexclusive right to self-determination in our homeland. That’s it. It’s a civil rights movement — one of the most successful in human history. In fact, Zionism in and of itself doesn’t make any determination of what should or shouldn’t happen to Palestinians or what the borders of the modern state of Israel should be.

And yet, young Jews are being told that supporting Israel, being proud of their own identity is problematic. Jewish Americans, in 2025, are being told by their peers that they ought to cower in fear, keep their heads down, and live an apologetic life due to the actions of a foreign nation in order to be accepted as a “good Jew.” 

But standing up for Jewish rights is not and will never be “oppressive.” That is the result of a deliberate, coordinated, and well-funded effort to erase Jewish identity.

In my work speaking to the U.S. Congress, the EU and other foreign governments, I have seen firsthand how deeply ingrained and artificial many of these anti-Israel narratives are. This isn’t a “grassroots” pro-Palestinian movement — it’s a top-down campaign fueled by bad actors who want to see Israel, and Jews, erased. The lies being spread on college campuses are not an accident. They are strategic, and they are effective, and that’s why I wrote this book along with Blake, because we need to give Jewish students, and all students, the tools to fight back and to feel confident in their identity and also the basics of this conflict.

Blake’s Story

I arrived at George Washington University in the fall of 2018 with every intention of fashioning a career in progressive politics. In high school, I was the president of the Young Democrats of America chapter, I worked on Hillary Clinton’s campaign and for local and statewide offices, I was involved in the pro-gun control movement, March For Our Lives. I wore shirts with liberal slogans written across them nearly every day. 

During this time, I didn’t think much about my Judaism. If you had asked me what it meant to be Jewish, I would have cited the pursuit of social justice — Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. I had never been to Israel, and although I grew up in a pro-Israel community, I had never heard the word “Zionist.” 

Then, strange things began to happen. 

A few days before an LGBT Pride March in Washington, D.C., organizers announced that rainbow flags featuring a Star of David would be banned on the grounds that they were “nationalist symbols.” I remember feeling shocked and close to tears. When Jewish marchers arrived with those flags in hand, organizers refused to let them enter — until the media showed up.

Not long after, a video leaked of two students walking home from a party. “What are we going to do to Israel?” one asked. The other responded, “We’re going to bomb Israel, you Jewish pieces of shit.” It wasn’t just the video that shocked me — it was the reaction of my progressive peers. Normally, they were outspoken against any injustice targeting a minority group on campus. But this time, there was silence. One of my closest friends, a fellow activist, even posted on Instagram: “Why should we stand up for the Jewish community when the Jewish community does nothing to stand up for others?” As both a Jew and a progressive activist, I felt deeply offended.

On May Day, progressive student groups organized a rally demanding that the university raise janitorial staff wages to $15 an hour. I was eager to join my fellow activists in fighting for local economic justice. But I was shocked when a student from Students for Justice in Palestine took the stage and argued that the fight to “liberate Palestinians from Israeli occupation” was directly connected to campus workers not earning a living wage — without specifying whether he meant the West Bank or Gaza. When he finished speaking, students erupted into chants of “Free Palestine.”

At a meeting for a popular progressive student group, the leadership declared within the first ten minutes that Zionists were not welcome in the organization, as Zionism was a “transnational project” they firmly opposed.

At a meeting for a popular progressive student group, the leadership declared within the first ten minutes that Zionists were not welcome in the organization, as Zionism was a “transnational project” they firmly opposed.

When I questioned my peers as to whether banning Zionists from student groups was inherently discriminatory toward Jews, I was met with hostility. I was called a “racist,” a “colonizer,” a “white supremacist” — labels that placed me outside the progressive movement I had devoted my life to.

Finally, I had enough.

In 2019, I published an opinion piece in The New York Times, “On the Frontlines of Progressive Antisemitism,” about my experience as a left-wing Jewish student on campus. It became the #1 most-read opinion piece that week. My life changed overnight. I received messages from hundreds, if not thousands, of students, parents, professors and strangers — Jewish and non-Jewish — wanting to hear more about my story.

The Moment I Knew I Had to Fight

Even after my article was published, I might still have been convinced that I was wrong — that antisemitism was only a problem on the right, that the “campus issue” was overblown. But what solidified my conviction was the reaction — or rather, the lack of one — on campus.

For every other scandal that year affecting minority communities — Black students, LGBT students, disabled students — the administration sent out emails, DEI officials held meetings, town halls were called and professors offered office hours to discuss the campus climate.

But after my New York Times piece? Silence.

Not a single professor reached out to discuss it. Only one faculty member contacted me, and when we met, we talked about the presidential election for 15 minutes, he gave me a copy of his book, and nothing more. There were no emails, no town halls, no DEI workshops. Nothing.

It became painfully clear that in progressive circles, Jewish students were held to a grotesque double standard.

But the antisemitism didn’t stop after my New York Times piece.

Soon after, a major LGBT organization on campus released a statement denying that “anti-Zionism is antisemitism.” A well-known climate justice group did the same. Then, just before the pandemic shut down campus, I was walking home from Shabbat dinner one Friday night wearing a kippah when a group of Arab students started shouting at me: “Yahud! Yahud! You produced it! You started it!” — referring to the conspiracy theory that Jews had created COVID-19.

It sounds crazy, but at that moment, I was almost grateful that the pandemic was forcing me to leave.

How Living in Israel Changed My Perspective

In 2022, I made the decision to make aliyah and move to Israel, and I have lived in Tel Aviv ever since.

Yes, my encounters with left-wing antisemitism played a role in my decision. I realized that while I remained a progressive and a liberal, I could not in good conscience be part of a leftist movement that denied Israel’s right to exist. I saw antisemitism on the left growing louder, not weaker, and I no longer felt at home in a community that had once embraced me.

But my move to Israel was also about something deeper: my Jewish identity.

In America, I felt that the only authentic way to be Jewish was through religious observance — going to shul, keeping kosher, believing in God. But as a lifelong secularist, these expressions of Jewishness never felt right to me. Meanwhile, the secular Jewish culture in the U.S. — bagels and lox, Yiddish quips, Seinfeld references — felt unfulfilling and superficial. Worse, it seemed to accelerate assimilation, often leading to anti-Zionism: belief that Jews do not need Israel or political power.

In Israel, I found something different.

Here, I have continued my activism as both a Zionist and a progressive. I co-host a podcast, “We Should All Be Zionists,” with former Knesset Member Einat Wilf, create social media content for pro-Israel organizations, and plan to enlist in the IDF this summer — not just to defend my country with words, but in uniform. I am also a vocal critic of our current government (though I will have to pause my political activism once I enlist). During the judicial overhaul crisis of 2023, I protested in the streets every week.

Living in Israel has taught me that young Jews do not need to choose between their ideological convictions and their Jewish identity. We do not need to sacrifice one for the other.

Israel is our homeland. And in our homeland, we can be whoever we wish to be.

We didn’t write this book to turn students into scholars of Middle Eastern history. We wrote it because we know, from experience, that you don’t need to know every detail of the Israeli-Arab conflict in order to stand up for yourself and be proud of your identity, in order to expose and call out bigotry. But you do need the basic facts, along with confidence, clarity, and courage. Jewish students need to know who they are, they need to know they have every reason to be proud of their identity, and they need to know that they are not alone.

The battle for truth is taking place right now, on college campuses across the world. If you’re a Jewish student today, you are on the front lines of that fight. 

The battle for truth is taking place right now, on college campuses across the world. If you’re a Jewish student today, you are on the front lines of that fight. And whether you like it or not, whether you think it’s fair or not, you have a responsibility to stand up for yourself, for Israel, and for the Jewish people.

Because sadly, the next generation does need to be ready — and we intend to make sure they are.

“The 10 Things Every Jew Should Know – An Illustrated Guide”

In this book, we have sought to fill the gaps of knowledge on subjects that the average Jewish college student might confront on campus. We break down Jewish identity, Israel and “The Neighborhood” of the Middle East in the first three chapters, before getting into the more complex issues of the conflict — “The Occupation,” the “Stick Up,” “The United Nations” and “Lies and Misconceptions.” Finally, we break down the challenges of media and social media today in chapter eight, before speaking about the campus and the future. This book is deliberately nonpartisan  – we present both sides of each argument so that any reader has a clear perspective of the entire field of discussion, rather than a right-wing or a left-wing perspective on sensitive issues. Today especially, with the prevalence of antisemitism and the chaos on campus, this book is not just for students, but also for parents to fill in gaps in their knowledge and understand what their children are navigating.

 As a final letter to the reader, we acknowledge that it is hard for the Western mind to comprehend a religious, fundamentalist worldview found in facets of Islam, where fulfillment comes when the Jews are either converted or dead. The West will always have a rude awakening when it misinterprets such dark and perverse desires as merely a hardened negotiating position which might change with exchange of land or money. Radicals might even create the illusion of softening their position, only to enact the final desire at a later date. Accepting these ideas is helpful not only in addressing the threat of terrorist organizations surrounding Israel, but also in confronting and understanding student organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. And, of course, it is wise to remember that what starts with the persecution of Jews never ends with only Jews. Yet despite all the many trials and hardships Jews have endured for thousands of years, and in the recent past, our civilization has survived millennia and has never been stronger than it is today. If the Jewish people and the state of Israel are learned and confident in their history and in their modern greatness, there is no enemy too powerful, and there is nothing we cannot achieve.

Emily Schrader and Blake Flayton are co-authors of “10 Things Every Jew Should Know Before They Go to College,” edited and illustrated by Los Angeles artist Kimberly Brooks. Available wherever books are sold.  www.10ThingsEveryJewShouldKnow.com

Excerpt From ’10 Things Every Jew Should Know Before They Go to College: An Illustrated Guide,’ Chapter 1: Who Are You?

A Brief History of the Jews

In the Beginning

• The Hebrew Bible begins with the creation of the universe by one God. Judaism largely introduced to the world the concept of monotheism.

• Abraham and Sarah Set Forth 

The Jewish people trace their lineage back to Abraham and Sarah, a couple from ancient Mesopotamia who were commanded by God to Lech Lecha, “go forth into the land which I have promised to you and all of your descendants.”  This statement records the birth of Zionism, the inherent bond between Abraham, Sarah and their descendants with the land which will eventually be named after their grandson “Israel” (Jacob), and informs the entire history of the Jewish people from that point on. Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac marries Rebekah, then Isaac and Rebekah’s son Jacob marries Leah. These are the Matriarchs and Patriarchs, the first Jews to live in the Land of Israel (then called Canaan).

• The Jews Become Strangers in Egypt  

Joseph, son of Jacob, is sold into slavery by his brothers and taken to Egypt. Soon, Joseph becomes the second in command of the Pharaoh’s court, and soon after, the entire family of Jacob settled along the Nile to escape the famine ravaging Canaan. Several generations later, Joseph’s descendants become enslaved by the polytheistic Pharaohs. But despite their subordination, the Canaanites, later soon to be called “Israelites,” kept faith in one God. 

• Exodus, The Story of Passover 

Jews tell the story of Passover during a feast every spring, wherein the Jewish prophet Moses asks Pharaoh to “Let my people go.” Finally, after a series of 10 terrible plagues, Pharaoh agrees to let the Jews go. The Book of Exodus documents the Israelites leaving slavery in Egypt, and Moses’s parting of the Red Sea that opens passage into the Promised Land — another seminal chapter in the evolution of Zionism as a pivotal Jewish value. The Passover celebration therefore ends with the shout: “Next Year in Jerusalem!”  

• Becoming a Nation 

The Israelites wander the desert for forty years. God gives Moses the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, and henceforth, the children of Israel become a nation of their own with a land of their own. Once the land is conquered some time after Moses’s death, it is divided among 12 tribes, named after the children of Jacob:  Reuben, Simeon, Levy, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin.

Territories of The 12 Tribes of Israel c. 1200 B.C.E.

• Israel Builds the First Temple 

Once in the land, the Israelites begin to build their own civilization, centered around the Torah, or “the five books of Moses,” which tells the story of their forefathers, foremothers, and the miracles and belief in one God. They form their own language, Hebrew (Ivrit, meaning, “on the other side of the water”), customs, and calendar, and build the First Temple circa 965 B.C.E., where all worship to God takes place. It is here when one of the most iconic Jewish kings rules the land, King David, who makes Jerusalem his capital. There is intense civil conflict amongst the Jews in this era. The people fight each other over and over again, eventually splitting the land into two separate kingdoms: Israel and Judah. 

• The First Temple is Destroyed  

The Babylonian Empire invades the land and destroys the First Temple in 586 B.C.E. This is remembered as one of the greatest tragedies in Jewish history, commemorated each year on Tisha b’Av. This is also the beginning of the first Diaspora, when Jews scattered about the earth, mainly in Babylon itself. 

• The Jews Rebuild  

In 538 B.C.E., during the reign of the Persian King, Cyrus the Great, the Jews return to Jerusalem and are permitted to build the Second Temple on the site of the original that had been destroyed. 

• The Destruction of the Second Temple 

The Roman Empire conquers the entire Mediterranean including Judah, renaming the land “Judea.” After one too many rebellions by the Judeans against the Romans, the Romans violently smash the Judean fighters, sack Jerusalem, burn the Second Temple to the ground, and expel a great number of Jews from the land (circa 70 C.E.). This expulsion of Jews marks the end of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel and the beginning of the existence of Jewish civilization in The Diaspora. 

• The Diaspora Continues 

Banished from their homeland, the Jewish people show a remarkable talent for keeping their traditions and unique customs alive. Wise men called rabbis, who are learned in Torah, become the leaders of the scattered Jewish community, ruling on laws and creating social norms that last for generations. By continuing the way of life birthed in the land, the Jews never stopped believing that they would eventually be restored “to the land of their fathers and mothers.”  

• The Rise of Antisemitism in Europe

Wherever Jews live, their ethics and culture bring commerce and community. When allowed, they intermingle with the surrounding society, and are quick to learn all kinds of languages and trade. Often, the Jews are relegated to a small area (shtetl in the countryside, ghetto in the city) where they largely keep to themselves. What we now know today as antisemitism (a word itself hateful toward Jews, as it was designed by German journalist Wilhelm Marr in the 1870s to mean dislike of a people “foreign” to Europe) usually becomes a problem when societies face moments of crisis, such as recessions, wars, famines, or plagues, and need someone to blame.  European antisemitism climaxed in the Holocaust, Germany’s systematic murder of 6 million Jews from Europe, the Balkans, and North Africa between 1939 and 1945.  

• Next Year in Jerusalem

In the late 1800s, the millennia-old belief that the Jews would one day be restored to Zion (a hill in Jerusalem noted in biblical times) manifests in a political movement aptly called Zionism. The Zionist movement, building on 4,000 years of Jewish history and evolution, represents an effort to bring the Jews back to their ancient homeland and establish political independence in a modern context and as full members of the Family of Nations. Jews had been singing “Next Year in Jerusalem” for 2,000 years, but this time, they make next year now, and begin migrating to Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) in the hundreds of thousands. Also around this time, there is a huge migration of European Jews to the United States.

• Rebirth of the Nation: Israel 

In May of 1948, after centuries of expulsion and immigration, the Jewish people declare the independent State of Israel. Right after its birth, 99% of the Jews in the Middle East are expelled or flee from their home countries of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Iran, Jordan, and Egypt– some of whose families had lived there for millennia, and migrate to the new Jewish state. 

All footnotes can be found at https://10ThingsEveryJewShouldKnow.com/bibliography