Confronting Antisemitism Through the Power of Relationships
In the wake of the attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, I watched the devastating news with shock, pain, and disbelief. Oddly, what stunned me the most was that, in the aftermath of this violent massacre, my Israeli family would text me from their shelters to ask if I was okay, based on what they saw happening at college campuses — especially at UCLA, close to my then-job at Pepperdine University. Looking at what was happening to this campus’ Jewish community, just miles across Los Angeles county, I felt hopeless and determined, somehow, to help.
It was clear — not just to me, but to my friends, family, and Jews around the world — that Jewish students needed more support. Hillel International, which serves nearly 200,000 students each year on more than 850 campuses, was clearly in the best position to make that happen. At UCLA, Hillel professionals recognized that they needed to increase their capacity to care for and support Jewish faculty and staff to best meet students’ needs. Around that same time, Hillel International identified a similar need on several campuses and created the Campus Impact Advisor position, a role specifically designed to support campus antisemitism prevention and response. Soon after, a friend of mine texted me about a job posting which rolled both visions into one role.
Some say that when people plan, God laughs. I would argue that when people pray, sometimes, God organizes a text message.
Thanks to that text, I now am a member of a team of gifted, brilliant, determined people, not just at UCLA Hillel but in my cohort of Campus Impact Advisors across Hillel International. We are all dedicated to making our campus spaces safer for all Jewish students, faculty, and staff, as well as their community allies. Students and faculty deserve to know that there is always someone they can trust to have their back — and that’s where Campus Impact Advisors like myself come in.
My job looks a bit different every day, but at its core, I see my work as grounded in relationship-building. I take walks on campus with students and staff, hold mentoring meetings, answer texts at all hours, hold frank discussions with members of the campus community about their experiences, meet with individuals for coffee, and organize events focused on Israel and antisemitism education. And that work pays off: in ten months, I increased the number of staff and faculty on campus who connected with Hillel by 36%.
One of my most memorable interactions is with an Israeli faculty member who replied to my initial email and met me for coffee. She shared about the stress she felt in her department, her exclusion from professional events, and told me all about her family. We discussed options for her, and kept in touch throughout the year. She is now the featured speaker at our first lunch and learn this academic year, and will talk about her own work and the impact of our work together. Every time I walk on campus, I run into someone who I’ve met through the relationships I’ve built and the conversations I’ve had — this is both humbling and invigorating.
These connections are only one of the tremendous strides we’ve made in confronting antisemitism on campus. Our Jewish Bruin community also achieved a landmark legal settlement that banned encampments and required the university to invest heavily in organizations and programs that combat antisemitism. Yet many in our campus community still face antisemitism on a daily basis, from snide comments to exclusion from panels to the overt inclusion of lessons and materials in course syllabi that are blatantly antisemitic.
Fighting that kind of widespread antisemitism can’t only be done with policies and procedures. It requires building relationships between students and faculty, between student communities, and between UCLA Hillel and university staff, faculty, and administrators. Building these relationships takes time, intent, grace, wisdom, and determination — but we’re here and we’re determined.
As I continue my second year as a member of the Campus Impact Advisor cohort, I am honored and excited to continue this work. Countering campus antisemitism, hate, and stereotypes with abundant Jewish joy is the most fulfilling work I have ever encountered, made that much better because I get to engage in it with others in my cohort, and my stalwart friends and colleagues at our fantastic Hillel at UCLA.
Andrea Harris is the campus impact advisor at Hillel at UCLA.