You don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.  I was introduced to this phrase over 40 years ago and it holds good today.  I can see the hostility towards British Jews every day, whether it is another biased report on the BBC website or a report of intimidation outside some shul or other, or as is the subject matter of his article, antagonism towards to Jewish students on campus.

Very recently the Union of Jewish Students published a report on just that subject – anti-Semitism on campus.  As far as it goes, this is an excellent report, well researched and based upon polling of a nationally representative sample of 1,000 UK university students, drawn from 170 higher education institutions between 26 January and 4 February 2026. The report makes clear that the sample was weighted to reflect the demographic profile of the UK student population.  The main findings are that a) antisemitism has become normalised on our campuses, b) glorification of terrorism is prevalent and unpunished and c) protests disrupt all students, and universities have a clear mandate from students to take firmer action.

The report makes reference to how 1 in 5 UK students would be reluctant to, or would never, house share with a Jewish student.  There is though something significant missing.  That is I have no idea how this 20% of students is made up.  Who are these people?  I don’t know because the report doesn’t say, even though there is reference to the sample being nationally representative.  This in my view is absolutely key.  If we don’t know who hates us – even though I can form a pretty good guess – then how can we seek to change their minds.

On balance that is almost certainly a complete waste of time.  What is more important is that we need to be able to direct the universities as to which hate group to target, rather than just saying the vice-chancellors as a body need to act.  We are all witnessing the result of the failure of universities to act against anti-Semitism.  Since Operation Protective Edge in 2014, intimidation of Jewish students has been on the increase along with the lies being told about them and Israel.  It is clear that many graduates have believed these lies without question.  The result is that these people are now moving in influential circles such as broadcasting and academia with those lies accepted by them as fact.  Little wonder then that there is so much bias and antagonism towards us in the BBC and in the leadership of various universities.

If I were helping my children now to pick a university and had read the UJS report, I would want to know which groups would be lined up against my sons on campus and which universities have no interest in disciplining Jew haters.  The report should have set out the former at the very least.  Imagine a travel guide telling you about you should go to a wildlife park containing different animals and warning you that 20% of those animals are hostile, but not telling you which ones.  That would be madness I hear you say, and you would be right.  So why are we being kept in the dark?

I don’t know whether or not UJS has the data which tells us who hates us.  If it doesn’t then despite the overall findings on a macro level which are alarming enough, the report does not help at all on a micro level.  I do know that if the data exists it should be distributed, since without it, we can only guess as to our enemies and guesses are never a substitute for hard facts. I am certain that if a report had been produced for another ethnic minority, its authors would not have been shy about identifying those responsible for hatred and antagonism.

This is not about just pushing universities to take action; it is about openly identifying those who wish to attack us and without that information, and without being melodramatic, our children’s safety is compromised.  I am sure that there will be many who will claim that we should not be trying to identify a particular group who might be hostile since that would be discriminatory.  I don’t see how.  If you know that a person with red hair is more likely to attack you than someone with blonde hair, then the sensible approach is to be keep away from the red-haired person, or at the very least treat them with circumspection.  That doesn’t seem like discrimination to me, it just seems sensible.  So, please UJS, can we have the missing data so we are fully informed.  Our children deserve no less.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)