{"id":478219,"date":"2026-03-16T07:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T07:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/478219\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T07:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T07:01:08","slug":"one-in-five-students-reluctant-to-live-with-jewish-housemate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/478219\/","title":{"rendered":"One in five students reluctant to live with Jewish housemate"},"content":{"rendered":"

One in five university students in Britain would be reluctant to share a house with a Jewish student, according to research that warns antisemitism has become \u201cnormalised\u201d on campuses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A report by the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) found that 20 per cent of students would be reluctant to live with a Jewish student, while 23 per cent have seen behaviour targeting Jewish students for their religion or ethnicity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The findings come from polling of 1,000 students of all faiths and none, alongside dozens of testimonies gathered from the student body.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The report said Jewish students had described facing physical and verbal abuse, social ostracisation and widespread antisemitic attitudes on campuses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the Community Security Trust, a Jewish charity, there were 308 antisemitic incidents recorded per month on average in 2025, double the monthly average in the year preceding the October 7 attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The research found that student groups have explicitly called for violence against Jews, with some justifying the terrorist attack at Bondi Beach in December<\/a>, which killed 15 people and injured 40.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nearly half, 49 per cent, of students had heard slogans or chants glorifying Hamas, Hezbollah or other proscribed groups on campus, while 47 per cent have witnessed justification of the October 7 attacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BridgetBridget Phillipson, the education secretary, called on universities to do more to protect Jewish students Peter Summers for the times<\/p>\n

Among students who regularly encountered Israel-Palestine protests, that figure rose to 77 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Louis Danker, the UJS president, said: \u201cRising polarisation has been acutely felt on university campuses in the UK.\u201d He added that \u201ca new wave of student activism\u201d was interrupting the rhythm of campus life with protests, encampments, blockades of buildings and disruption to lectures.<\/p>\n

The report found that protests have disrupted learning for 65 per cent of students, while 40 per cent of students have been forced to alter their journeys on campus to avoid disruption.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Universities where protests are more frequent have reported higher levels of antisemitism, and 39 per cent of students who witness regular Israel-Palestine have often seen Jewish students harassed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sixty-nine per cent of students disapprove of protests blocking access to learning, while 82 per cent deem calls to \u2018globalise the intifada\u2019 to be antisemitic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the government set out new measures to support universities in keeping students safe from extremism, harassment and intimidation on campus, giving the Office for Students stronger powers to ensure institutions take action where serious concerns arise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Universities must act to protect Jewish students from harassment and discrimination on campuses, Bridget Phillipson<\/a>, the education secretary, has said. <\/p>\n

The report calls for stronger regulation of students\u2019 unions, requiring universities and the Charity Commission to enforce proper conduct and combat extremism, and the delivery of a national counter-extremism strategy with a focus on campus radicalisation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UJS report makes for truly sickening reading,\u201d Karen Newman, the vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJewish students should not have to worry that a fifth of their peers would not live with them because they are Jewish, or about the prevalence of support being expressed for banned terrorist groups \u2026The Board of Deputies will continue to support the Union of Jewish Students in standing up for Jews on campuses and ensuring they can live their student days with Jewish pride. We will also continue our efforts with government to eradicate all hatred and discrimination faced by Jews, in any part of our society.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One in five university students in Britain would be reluctant to share a house with a Jewish student,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-478219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}