How is Bristol protecting its Jewish students?

As an alumni of Bristol University it has come to my attention that Sociology Professor David Miller has made inflammatory and accusatory remarks directed towards the Jewish Society that has resulted in students feeling unsafe and unwelcome.

It is the privilege of educational institutions to ensure free speech is upheld. It is also the obligation of educational institutions to protect its students from vilification based on race, gender, sexuality or religion. It seems to me that Bristol is doggedly upholding the former whilst not enforcing the latter.

During my time at Bristol university, I was more often than not “the first Jew” my fellow students had met. At the time, this sense of novelty surrounding my religion and culture was not hostile, but more born of curiosity. I felt that I had the space to explain my culture and religion without immediate associations to Israel, or Islamophobia. Today, Jewish students — by their own account — do not enjoy this space. Instead, they have been directly associated with being agents of zionism and with peddling islamophobia, quite ridiculous generalisations that are dangerously close to anti-semitic conspiracy theories. Had I found myself in this situation, I would have certainly not felt safe to explain my culture and identify so openly as a Jew. I would have felt scared, judged and even maybe ashamed of my identity. I would have felt alienated and ostracised.

University should be a place where we interrogate ourselves and our position in society in an empowered and inspirational way. It should be an institution that enables us to flourish as the best version of ourselves. Or as the Bristol motto states, “promotes one’s innate power”. It should not be a place where we worry about being profiled by the faculty who are employed thanks to the fees we pay, to educate us. And we certainly should not be scared of being judged by our tutors — those positioned to guide, inspire and educate us.

Anti Semitism has consistently proved to be an insidious discriminatory practise. Jews pass as white, which makes the prejudice we suffer ever more complicated and hard to discern. But if an oppressed community is saying that something is wrong — it is time to listen.

Something is wrong.

I hope Bristol University addresses this problem and seeks to defend and provide support to its students, as it would I am sure were this a gender or race based issue.