The CJN’s year-end antisemitism report card for Canadian schools and universities

North Star with Ellin Bessner

As Canadian public schools and universities wind down the 2024-2025 academic year this week, Jewish students can enjoy a desperately needed break from what has, by many accounts, been a difficult year for antisemitism in classrooms and on campuses. In the past school year alone, The CJN has reported on more than 70 stories involving protests, vandalism, harassment, lawsuits, school board policies and other incidents that have occurred since Oct. 7: masked anti-Israel protesters smashed buildings at McGill University; a high school in Ottawa played a pro-Hamas song during the Remembrance Day ceremonies; a professor offered students extra marks for cutting class to join, and write essays about, a pro-Palestinian protest; Jewish teachers and at least one pro-Israel school board trustee have been accused of anti-Palestinian racism. Unsurprisingly, enrolment in private Jewish day schools has been soaring, as worried Jewish parents transfer out of the public system so their kids won’t be bullied—or worse. And the pro- and anti- Israel battle playing out in Canada’s classrooms, school board meetings and most recently during convocation and graduation ceremonies has been impacting Jewish teachers and faculty and students in many ways. On today’s episode of North Star, host Ellin Bessner sits down with The CJN’s education beat reporter, Mitchell Consky, to take stock of the biggest stories of this past academic year and what the upcoming fall semester could look like.

Related links

• Read more about how, if at all, Canadian universities moved to adopt any of the divestment requests of the pro-Palestinian encampments’ students, in The CJN.
• Learn how Jewish students on campus are publishing their own newspapers because pro-Israel, Zionist views are banned from longtime legacy campus outlets, in The CJN.
• Hear why the former dean of U of T’s medical school, Arnie Aberman, gave back his honorary degree in protest over campus antisemitism.

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
• Music: Bret Higgins

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