Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week directed the state’s universities to make it easier for out-of-state students facing antisemitism and other religious harassment in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war to transfer to Florida campuses.
DeSantis’ directive on Tuesday piggybacks on blowback some Ivy League leaders have faced in response to how they’re handling antisemitism and anti-Israel protests on their campuses. The governor’s office said there has been an increase in inquiries about transferring, without providing any numbers to back that up.
“With leaders of so-called elite universities enabling antisemitic activities, rather than protecting their students from threats and harassment, it is understandable that many Jewish students are looking for alternatives and looking to Florida,” DeSantis, who is campaigning for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, said in a statement.
The order referred to all students facing religious harassment, and when asked if it included Muslims, Christians and others, a spokeswoman for the board governing Florida’s university systems, said Wednesday it covers any student fearful of religious persecution following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. However, neither she nor the governor’s office said how many students had made inquiries about transferring.
Democratic state Sen. Lori Berman said she knows of Florida students at Harvard who are concerned about antisemitism on campus, but has also heard from a student at the University of South Florida in Tampa, adding that antisemitism is a problem in many places and DeSantis’ directive is doing little to prevent it.
“It’s kind of interesting that we’re offering our Florida schools when I’m not sure that our Florida schools are any different than what’s going on elsewhere in the nation,” said Berman, who is Jewish.
The lawmaker from South Florida also noted there have been Nazi and antisemitic demonstrations and activities in Florida that DeSantis has said little about.
“He didn’t condemn that at all. He did not condemn any of the neo-Nazi ideology that we’ve seen,” Berman said, adding the governor’s latest move seems to be more aimed at voters than to solve the problem of antisemitism on college campuses.
“It’s a political talking point right before the Iowa caucuses.”
DeSantis has waded into the political side of the Israel-Hamas war previously, including organizing flights that brought dozens of U.S. citizens in Israel back to Florida in the conflict’s early days.
Shortly after that, the governor and the state board that oversees public universities sought to kick off Florida campuses chapters tied to the national Students for Justice in Palestine organization. The governor claimed their expressions of support for Hamas equated to backing a terrorist organization. The University of Florida chapter and others sued the governor in federal court in November, claiming they have First Amendment rights to advocate and speak out on the issue. That case remains pending in a Tallahassee court.
College campuses across the U.S. have been roiled by protests since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and university presidents have been caught in the crosshairs, criticized for how they’ve responded to antisemitic and anti-Muslim acts on and off campus, as well as their public statements on the war. The leaders of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania resigned recently in the wake of criticism over their testimony at a congressional hearing where they were unable to say unequivocally that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the schools’ conduct policies, citing free speech rights.
Under an emergency order signed by the chancellor of the Florida university system on Tuesday, an out-of-state student who has demonstrated “a well-founded fear of persecution” based on religion would have certain requirements, application deadlines and out-of-state tuition waived.
“I think it would be wonderful if it were all religious discrimination. I hope it reads that broadly,” said Rabbi Rachael Jackson in Orlando, who reviewed the order.
Just under 10% of the U.S. Jewish population of 7.6 million people live in Florida, the third-highest state after New York and California, according to the American Jewish Population Project at Brandeis University.
Rabbi David Kay in Orlando said while he hasn’t heard of any out-of-state Jewish students wanting to transfer to Florida campuses he knows Jewish students who decided not to enroll at Florida universities because of efforts by DeSantis and Republican lawmakers to weaken professor tenure, eliminate diversity initiatives and the takeover by DeSantis appointees of New College, a traditionally progressive school in Sarasota.
The order may backfire by appearing to give Jewish students special treatment, he added.
“It may have the opposite effect,” Kay said, with other students thinking, “Why is discrimination against Jewish students being singled out, instead of Muslim students, Hispanic students and Black students?”
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
6 Responses
Florida has no elite universities. The same is largely true of the south – the Civil War wipes out their endowments and they never recovered. The state universities are generally weaker, again due to the economic impacts of slavery, Civil War and Jim Crow, which left the southern states crippled and they only started recovering in the mid-20th century.
Frum Jews are probably going to be increasingly drawn to distance education sponsored by reputable universities (cheaper, fewer hassles), and secular Jews (who are still liberals) will focus on getting elite universities to fulfill their duty of non-discrimination under the Federal civil rights laws (enacted in the mid-20th century).
So just to be clear, YWN is posting anti-republican articles against a Governer who is trying to push back against anti-semitism using quotes by female Jewish leaders all the while calling them Rabbis. I understand you want to publish news without producing original content but perhaps you should at least read the headlines and articles you are sharing. Again, just a friendly reminder, Halacha applies to everyone even news agencies.
Why does ywn just copy paste from AP without editing. This is very informative for people why quote reform rabbis saying that this is only good if it includes blacks? And some dumb quote from a Jewish state senator that has nothing productive to add to the conversation? I agree that there’s a lot of antisemitism in Florida and the Magasantis people don’t want to admit it.
The lawmaker from South Florida also noted there have been Nazi and antisemitic demonstrations and activities in Florida that DeSantis has said little about. “He didn’t condemn that at all. He did not condemn any of the neo-Nazi ideology that we’ve seen,”
What a ridiculous claim. When there were huge antisemitic demonstrations at state universities, Desantis acted decisively (and perhaps unconstitutionally). As this very article notes later without noting, he had the university system withdraw recognition from the group that organized the antisemitic demonstrations. This Democrat politican ignores that and instead whines about a completely insignificant demonstration on a public street, by a few dozen neo-nazi clowns who have no influence and cannot harm anyone. Desantis had no reason to even be aware of this minuscule event, and if he was by some chance aware of it he had no reason to comment on it. It had nothing to do with him or with the state. It was not his business. He doesn’t comment on every dog that barks.
It’s a free country, people are allowed to demonstrate on public streets for any cause they like, but they won’t get any state support. But when they do so on a state university campus, in a manner that makes Jewish students feel unsafe, and on a scale that makes it worthy of notice, it becomes the governor’s business, and he took care of that business. His action will probably be thrown out in court (at least it would be if I were the judge), but he has shown that his heart is in the right place.
“Why is discrimination against Jewish students being singled out, instead of Muslim students, Hispanic students and Black students?”
Because there isn’t any discrimination against them. On the contrary, every university in America has been bending over backwards to accommodate them, at the cost of discriminating against White, Jewish, and Asian students. There is some discrimination against Christian students, but not significantly. There is none against Moslem students.
he knows Jewish students who decided not to enroll at Florida universities because of efforts by DeSantis and Republican lawmakers to weaken professor tenure, eliminate diversity initiatives and the takeover by DeSantis appointees of New College, a traditionally progressive school in Sarasota.
Any Jewish student who is dumb enough to be bothered by those things should stay away from Florida; they would not be assets to the state. Let them find the most antisemitic snake-pit and enjoy.