Twenty-five Jewish university students from across the US participated in the Olami #ZeroTolerance Mission to Washington, DC. The trip is in response to the failure of university officials to take reports of antisemitic incidents on campus seriously. The students are calling for a national reporting system to be implemented by the US Office of Civil Rights to bring transparency and accountability to how universities handle antisemitic incidents.

On Tuesday, Olami participants stood with Representative Nancy Mace in front of the capital for a late afternoon press conference demanding action from the Federal government. Mace is also circulating a letter among members of Congress.

The letter states that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides that “no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin…be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

She urged the DOE “to issue a rule to implement a uniform reporting system for all instances of antisemitic bias and discrimination at all colleges and universities that receive federal funding.”

The letter also asks the Department of Education to “terminate federal financial assistance to any college or university that fails to comply with these new reporting requirements.”

Olami is an organization dedicated to building Jewish identity and ensuring Jewish continuity. They operate on over 100 US campuses to serve the needs of Jewish students. Following October 7, there has been an alarming explosion of antisemitism on campuses, and students were telling Olami staff that their reports were being ignored or brushed aside by university officials.

In the Capitol Hill press conference, Rep. Mace announced that her “office is teaming up with Olami and their zero-tolerance efforts across the country.”

Mace, who represents South Carolina, home to one of the first Jewish communities in the US, explained that many community members there expressed worry for their safety in their homes and on college campuses.

“We want to make sure we are demanding decisive steps from universities to combat antisemitism and Jewish hate rather than to pay lip service to it.

“We know that violent antisemitism is up all across the county by over 13% on college campuses, and a staggering 73% of Jewish students on college campuses and universities have reported that they have witnessed or been part of or a victim of antisemitism in their own universities and colleges. And since Hamas’s invasion of Israel, those numbers are only getting worse.”

Joshua Jankelow, a Stanford senior and a participant of the OLAMI delegation, explained that, after being targeted for antisemitism at his university, he tried calling campus security but kept getting redirected to different departments.

“It became abundantly clear that the whole system was dedicated to moving students from department to department until their exhaustion eventually outweighed their fear.“

“October 9 was the day I drew a target on my back,” Gisele Kahlon, a student and residential assistant at Drexel University, opened her speech with. She responded to a post on a residential assistant group chat that belittled the October 7 massacre. After she attempted to shut down the remarks, she was instantly met with intense backlash from the other group members: “I was dismissed as their colleague and Drexel dragon.

“Since then, I’ve been seen as one thing and one thing only in their eyes, a Jew; I am not safe on campus.”

Kahlon is not the only Jewish student who is unsafe at Drexel.

“I know a girl who is openly Jewish and had her dorm door burned down. As far as I know, Drexel is still investigating. She is not safe on campus.

“I have a friend who was walking home from a Shabbat dinner with a yarmulke who was hit in the face by someone shouting ‘f’ the Jews – as far as I know, Drexel is still investigating. He is not safe on campus.“

Kahlon explained that she is a student like any other, who came to learn, explore, and find her passion, and that she deserves the same civic rights as any other student. She closed by saying, “To feel safe is not a privilege, but rather, it is a right. It is our right as American Jews.”

Rabbi David Markowitz, executive vice president and managing director of Vision and Partnerships at OLAMI, the organization supporting the Zero Tolerance campaign, explained the crucial need for transparency and accountability in reporting antisemitic incidents.

“It is time to open the books, to understand what’s happening,” he said. “ The universities that are doing good jobs should be celebrated so the students on those campuses should feel safe, should feel supported.” On the other hand, “Other campuses where there simply is no response when a student reports or complains… should be held accountable.

“This simple change in the policy of the Department of Education, in holding the schools accountable to report the number of incidents and their response to those incidents, will create the change needed to start giving every student on campus a voice.

“We know so many students who are simply not reporting anymore because they’ve learned helplessness.”

At the press conference, Charlie Harary called on the government “to do what the government does, to protect our freedoms…we are living in a time where even our basic rights are not being upheld.”

“We learned the lesson and took the pledge of never again after the Second World War, after the Holocaust. That is not an empty phrase to be yelled at rallies,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, vice chairman emeritus, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and president of Abraham Spirit. “This is a pledge that each generation, Jew and non-Jew alike, must take because we want to protect America. We want to protect Western values. We want to protect our society.”

In addition to the press conference, students are set to meet with close to 50 members of Congress. The delegation met with senior officials at the US Department of Education, had dinner with Senators Ron Wyden, Richard Blumenthal, and Joni Ernst, and lunch with Reps Kathy Manning and Brad Schneider, all with the purpose of creating a more transparent and efficient antisemitism reporting system across US college campuses.

The Zero Tolerance campaign is active on U.S. and Canadian college campuses. To learn more about the Zero Tolerance Campaign, visit https://zerotolerance.today/