Crossroads Podcast: Why Jewish College Students Are Headed To The Bible Belt
No doubt about it. Quite a few students up north are taking their talents, and tuition dollars, to Southern states. For a conservative take on the statistics, see this Daily Mail piece: “Why college kids are abandoning Ivy Leagues to go to Southern schools.”
The question we asked in this week’s “Crossroads” podcast is whether religion has anything to do with this trend.
Yes, some Jewish students and their parents appear to be fed up with life on campuses with Intifa choirs (backed by some faculty) camped in locations that make it hard for supporters of Israel to get to class without people shouting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” or even “Go back to Poland” at them.
Consider this passage from a relevant New York Times feature: “Universities Face an Urgent Question: What Makes a Protest Antisemitic?”
If this is a matter that has vexed political leaders, university administrators and some Jewish college students, inside the encampments the very notion of antisemitism is barely discussed, in part because the demonstrators do not believe the label applies to their activism. Protest leaders point to the involvement of Jewish student activists and challenge the idea that the comfort of Israel’s supporters should be a concern.
And they draw a distinction between anti-Zionism, which describes opposition to the Jewish state of Israel, and hatred toward Jewish people in general. It is an argument many Jews see as a fig leaf for bigotry.
In a recent letter, Columbia University leaders noted: “Chants, signs, taunts and social media posts from our own students that mock and threaten to ‘kill’ Jewish people are totally unacceptable. …”
There are, of course, many secular Zionists who are cultural Jews. Then again, there are many religious Jews who have theological reasons for supporting a Jewish state. Ditto for many Christians who to one degree or another can be accurately called Christian Zionists. It’s impossible to argue about borders in the Holy Land without religion entering into the rhetoric (and wars).
But are there students who are headed south seeking schools where they can worship, as well as party? It would help if journalists would dig into the religious climates on some of the schools that are welcoming many of these students.
Leave it up to the folks at The Free Press to note that the South includes some deep-blue private schools that are as “progressive,” or even “illiberal,” as their Yankee counterparts.
It should be noted that elite Southern schools like Duke, in North Carolina, and Vanderbilt, in Tennessee, are not entirely immune to the radical politics sweeping American campuses. But the advantages once offered by elite universities, like the freedom to debate ideas and disagree, increasingly seem to be disappearing. In the 2024 College Free Speech Rankings, released by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), four Ivy Leagues were in the bottom fifteen — Yale, Dartmouth, Penn, and in last place (with a score of 0.00), Harvard.
During the podcast, I turned to an unusual source for insights into what may be happening — Aaron M. Renn and his famous First Things essay, “The Three Worlds of Evangelicalism.” He argued that Christians are coping with what he sees as the three stages of secularization in America.
* Positive World (Pre-1994): Society at large retains a mostly positive view of Christianity. To be known as a good, churchgoing man remains part of being an upstanding citizen. Publicly being a Christian is a status-enhancer. …
* Neutral World (1994–2014): Society takes a neutral stance toward Christianity. Christianity no longer has privileged status but is not disfavored. …
* Negative World (2014–Present): Society has come to have a negative view of Christianity. Being known as a Christian is a social negative, particularly in the elite domains of society. …
What does this have to do with the academic choices of Jewish believers? Looking at the coverage of this “headed south” trend, I tweaked Renn’s observations and theorized that Jewish parents and their children (and other traditional religious believers) may have decided that they face choices among four kinds of colleges and universities.
1. Friendly (as in Renn’s “Positive” stage) — Schools that welcome Jews and other religious believers whose faith shapes their beliefs, actions and public speech.
2. Neutral — At the very least, traditional believers will be safe and considered part of an essentially secular and “liberal” academic community.
3. Negative, but acceptable — Traditional believers face discrimination in classrooms and other parts of campus life, but not to the degree that this prevents them from adapting strategies (think Rod Dreher and “The Benedict Option”) that allow them to survive and in some settings thrive.
4. Hostile and even dangerous — “Dangerous” as in threatening spiritual, intellectual and even physical safety. Trustees have allowed the creation of a truly illiberal academic community.
Read the news coverage of this “heading South” tend and read what people on both sides are saying. What are Jews (and others) seeking when they face these hard academic and soon professional choices?
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