When I came to the Forward, I knew I wanted to cover antisemitism in a way that wouldn’t shy away from reality — but wouldn’t oversimplify it, either. Years of doing this work has taught me that antisemitism isn’t always black and white. This year, with the full support of the Forward, I was able to bring that nuance to life.
George Washington University , a liberal arts college in Washington, D.C., has been labeled a “hotspot” of antisemitism and even compared to Nazi Germany by one political pundit. GW is just one of the many schools around the country where Jewish students — 25% of the student body — are supposedly under siege.
Over the course of a year, I followed the school’s Jewish students on the frontlines of activism around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and antisemitism. During nine visits to campus and many more hours on Zoom, I witnessed the gap between the narrative national organizations have painted about Jewish life on campus and the reality experienced by students.
I can’t imagine writing this story — with attention paid to students from across the spectrum of Jewish life and views on Israel — with any other publication but the Forward. The Forward is not beholden to any individual, institution, or ideology — and that independence allows us to follow the reporting where it goes.
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