Content Warning: Mentions of antisemitism and violence

Students and McGill community members have reported acts of antisemitism on campus in recent weeks. In an email sent to the McGill community on Sept. 20, Provost and Executive Vice-President (Academic) Christopher Manfredi and Vice-President (Administration and Finance) Fabrice Labeau stated that the university had reported antisemitic graffiti to the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal. The Montreal Gazette wrote that the graffiti included a swastika written on a sign for the Redpath Library.

“In recent days, our campus has seen hate incidents, ranging from graffiti to intimidation of members of our campus community, acts which any reasonable person would consider antisemitic,” Manfredi and Labeau wrote in their joint statement.

McGill’s Media Relations Office did not offer further comment to The Tribune on the incidents and referred back to Manfredi and Labeau’s communication.

In response to these events, Hillel McGill emphasized the emotional toll on students, stating that many have sought support in Jewish student organizations.

“Jewish students were confronted with swastikas vandalized on campus buildings,” Hillel McGill wrote in an email to The Tribune. “Incidents like these […] have led many Jewish students to increasingly turn to Hillel for support and solace.”

Some Jewish groups on campus, such as Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) McGill, maintain that there must be a distinction between Jewish identity and the state of Israel.

“In the past year, we have noticed a strong uptick in the McGill administration’s tendency to conflate antisemitism with anti-Zionism,” IJV McGill wrote to The Tribune. “[McGill administrators] continue to argue that anti-Zionist political movements like Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) are antisemitic, not only mischaracterizing an anti-genocide political movement and thereby trivializing real acts of antisemitism, but ignoring the numerous Jewish voices and organizations that support and participate in the movement.”

Alex*, a Jewish student at McGill, explained that they feel uneasy about displaying religious symbols.

“There’s a growing polarization in campus discourse, particularly around issues related to Israel and Palestine, which has made it more difficult to navigate my identity as a Jewish person,” Alex wrote in a statement to The Tribune. “While I don’t feel unsafe in the physical sense, I do feel increasingly uncomfortable and isolated due to the charged environment [….] I haven’t experienced direct acts of antisemitism, but I have felt the need to avoid displaying visible symbols of my Jewish identity, like my Star of David necklace.”

IJV McGill called on the university to recognize the diversity of perspectives within McGill’s Jewish community and not treat it as a monolith.

“We would like to see McGill revise its policy on antisemitism to prevent the dangerous conflation of antisemitism with anti-Zionism,” IJV McGill wrote. “The Jewish community at McGill is incredibly diverse, and when the administration claims to act in our interests, they speak over the voices of the many anti-Zionist Jews in our community, and even worse, they claim to speak for them.”

*Alex’s name has been changed to preserve their anonymity.

Resources: 

For faculty and staff:  

• The Employee & Family Assistance Program is available to McGill employees as a confidential support service.  

For students:  

• The Student Wellness Hub offers counselling services for students  located in Montreal.  
• GuardMe is a service accessible 24/7 whenever you need to speak or text with a mental health professional for support. You can access GuardMe from anywhere in the world.