OPINION: Warwick Uni prides itself on inclusivity, yet stayed silent on antisemitism during my years on campus
In a follow-up to her impactful 2021 column on being cast out of activism circles at university on account of her Jewish identity, graduating Emilie Eisenberg reflects on both the support she has received and the profound disappointment she has encountered throughout her time at Warwick University.
In 2021, I wrote an article titled ‘You can’t be an activist if you’re Jewish‘ for Jewish News. I didn’t expect many people to read it but I received countless supportive emails and Facebook messages, many from people who experienced a similar type of antisemitism to me. At a time in which I felt incredibly alone, many people reached out to let me know that I wasn’t.
A lot of things changed after the events described in the article. I started new, private social media pages, to avoid receiving any more swastikas or death threats. I stopped wearing my Magen-David. I tried to put my first year of university behind me.
I had help, of course. Many of my friends are also ethnic minorities who have been targeted by racism at some point in their lives, and could sympathise with me. Both CST and UJS reached out to me and supported me. CST sent security to the Jewish Society’s Friday Night Dinners after they received threats.
If there was anything I learned from the entire experience, it was that far more people were willing to stand up for Jews than I had ever expected.
I was surprised and relieved to meet so many people, Jews and non-Jews alike, who sympathised and wanted to stand up to antisemitism.
After the success of my article, The Times reached out to me and interviewed me for a follow-up, and I realised that this was not an issue that only those in the Jewish community care about. They sent me an email after the interview requesting a picture of me for the article, and I sent one without much thought, assuming it would be a footnote.
One the day that it was published, one of my friends sent me a screenshot of it, and another bought the newspaper to show me. My face was the entire banner at the top of the article’s web page. Everyone, from my professors at university to my rabbi informed me that they had seen the article.
I stopped wearing my Magen-David. I tried to put my first year of university behind me.
Perhaps the most important takeaway from the experience that I had was the desire to learn more about my own religious and cultural background.
Instead of shying away from Judaism altogether, I found myself wanting to learn more about it and to understand it better. I started having important conversations with my family members about where, exactly, we had come from. I thought carefully about how to harbour and use the momentum that had been created online.
I learned that the antisemitism of individuals at universities like Warwick is only encouraged by corrupt student unions and the antisemitism that ran deep within the structure of the National Union of Students.
Previously, my anger had been directed only at specific people, but I learned to become angry at the entire British higher education system and its total disregard for its Jewish students.
Perhaps the most important takeaway from the experience that I had was the desire to learn more about my own religious and cultural background.
Members of Warwick Students Union and other actively hostile societies reached out to me and attempted to apologise, but when I listened to their apologies, I found them empty and insincere. They were apologising because they had been caught, not because they believed they had done anything wrong.
They were apologising for my specific experience, not for the antisemitism that their beliefs contained. They understood themselves to be right, but my experience to be unfortunately abrasive.
This was also the attitude of the NUS. I cannot comment on the university itself, because they never reached out to me.
Members of Warwick Students Union and other actively hostile societies reached out to me and attempted to apologise, but when I listened to their apologies, I found them empty and insincere
I know from my time working on the Shame On You Warwick campaign that the university’s press office is acutely aware of any mention of the university’s name in the news, so I have no doubt that they have seen the articles.
Many people, most of whom I had never met, called the university out on social media for their silence and passivity surrounding my case. Others directly contacted the university and asked why nothing had been done. But they said absolutely nothing. I doubt they ever will.
Warwick, a university that prides itself on inclusivity and diversity, has never been as silent as it is now.
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