Yale Podcast Discusses ‘Unprecedented Antisemitism on Campus with Kenneth Marcus’

On November 20, 2023, Yale’s Buckley Institute podcast “Pod and Man at Yale” interviewed Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus, who discussed the record levels of campus anti-Semitism – even before the October 7 Hamas massacre.   

Regarding the weeks following the attacks, Chairman Marcus states: “Certainly, the volume of intake [for legal help requests to the Brandeis Center on campus anti-Semitism] increased by much more than tenfold from those record levels…So this situation now is not just historic, record-setting, and unprecedented within certainly our lifetimes, but it is exponentially higher than the record level that we had reached in the period leading up to October 7.” 

There used to be a period of time when people would ask Marcus: “What are the hotspot campuses that are having problems that you need to focus on” and he could give them an answer. Nowadays he says: “There really is no campus where we would be surprised to find problems, because the situation, the degree of anti-Semitism on college campuses, has reached a far greater saturation level.”  

Although we are in a dark time, Marcus ends with a positive message to Jewish students: “We are not alone. There are friends and allies to be found. It is, I believe, in our hands, it is not too late.” 

The podcast also interviewed two Yale undergraduates, Aaron Schorr ‘24 and Mitchell Dubin ’25 for this episode. Schorr and Dubin spoke about what it is like to be a Jewish student at Yale, particularly since the October 7 Hamas attack, and their personal experiences on campus.