By Andrew Lapin
During Lauren Eckstein’s freshman year at Pomona College in southern California, her grandparents pledged $1.2 million to the private school toward a scholarship supporting refugee students. They gave the funds in honor of their family’s own refugee background, having fled antisemitism in Europe.
That was in December of 2022. Less than a year later, following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, Eckstein herself was looking to leave the college after experiencing antisemitism on a campus that continues to be a hotbed of pro-Palestinian activism.
“I had gone home and was finishing my semester online due to the targeted antisemitism I experienced,” she said. “I didn’t feel comfortable going back.”
Eventually, Eckstein sought a safe haven halfway across the country, at Washington University in St. Louis.
For the past two years, Jewish college students looking to flee hostile environments on their campuses have had this under-the-radar option available. WashU quietly introduced a program allowing students to transfer from other colleges for the spring semester, rather than waiting until the new school year.
The program did not explicitly cater to Jewish students, but some have taken advantage of it. According to the student paper, around 20 students in total have reportedly utilized the program, including Eckstein and several other Jewish students who said they left other prestigious schools over antisemitic environments. Six students transferred as part of the program this year.
WashU is one of a small number of colleges that have tried to appeal to Jewish students looking for friendlier pastures. Brandeis University, a secular private school founded by and, in part, for Jews, extended its transfer application deadline last summer and saw 90 students opt to transfer.
Yeshiva University, the modern Orthodox flagship in New York City, was buoyed by a $1 million donation from NFL owner Robert Kraft specifically to encourage transfer students. It said this fall that its admissions have spiked since the Hamas attacks.
And a number of Christian colleges, including schools with little to no programming or infrastructure for Jewish campus life, have also made direct transfer appeals to Jewish students or hired Jewish staff away from secular universities since Oct. 7.
To be eligible for WashU’s program, a spring transfer student needs to have completed at least one prior semester of college. Only the university’s Arts and Sciences college is eligible to accept transfers.
News about WashU’s program circulated in the Facebook group Mothers Against College Antisemitism and on the message board College Confidential, but the university administration isn’t exactly advertising it. A spokesperson declined to provide any information about the transfer program, its number of applicants, acceptance rate or how it has affected Jewish students, beyond insisting it was open to all interested transfers.
Official communication about the program is so scant that, when reached for comment this winter, the WashU spokesperson initially said the school was cancelling it due to lack of interest. Hours later, the spokesperson reversed course and said the program would in fact continue.
WashU does not have the same Jewish roots or identity as Brandeis or Y.U., but a quarter of the student body is Jewish, according to the campus Hillel. That may be why its transfer policy appealed to Jewish students even if it didn’t explicitly reach out to them.
WashU hasn’t been immune to tensions over the Israel-Hamas war. The school, like many others, briefly had a pro-Palestinian encampment which some students and faculty were suspended for participating in; students there have also pushed to divest from Israel. Last year the student government passed a resolution calling on the university to divest from Boeing, citing its ties to Israel.
The school’s Hillel — whose director did not respond to repeated requests for comment — has accused at least one faculty member of promoting “anti-Israel bias.” That professor, shortly after the attacks, described the vandalism of the home of a member of the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC as “pretty cool.”
But WashU’s chancellor, Andrew Martin, also issued communications opposing antisemitic language and actions, including stating that the disputed phrase “From the river to the sea” is “well understood by most in our community” to be associated with “hatred.”
“This type of language does not build understanding; its contribution to the community is ill will, anger, distress, and sadness,” he said.
After hearing about WashU’s transfer program, Eckstein visited the campus and was won over by its “large and thriving Chabad and Hillel.” She also saw a display of hostage posters in a heavily trafficked area leading to dormitories that she found “incredibly moving.”
The transfer program, she said, “helped me and other Jewish students enter a community where we truly belong.”
Rabbi Hershey Novack, co-director of WashU’s Chabad center, said he hopes the school can set an example.
“There’s no reason for WashU to have a monopoly on providing a safe space for all her students,” he said. “It should be the baseline for every campus in America.”
Andrew Lapin writes for the JTA global Jewish media source.
The BCO, founded in 1984, will perform the works of Frank Zappa, Beethoven, Mason Bates and Karena Ingram.
For more than 130 years, Sol Levinson & Bros. has been woven into the fabric of Baltimore’s Jewish community.
A former college campus activist, Veksler will speak at Chizuk Amuno on June 8 at the Ruth and Jay Lenrow Visiting Scholar-in-Residence for Combating Antisemitism.