Jews make up more than 16% of the undergraduate students at the University of Pennsylvania, according to hillel.org. Yet in recent months, the school has become a hotbed of anti-Israel activity and antisemitism.
In September, Penn allowed the Palestine Writes Festival to go on despite the inclusion of anti-Israel speakers such as Roger Waters. Later in the fall, antisemitic messages were projected onto university buildings and antisemitic emails were sent to Penn staff. In December, then-Penn President M. Elizabeth Magill said disciplining students who called for the genocide of the Jews was a “context-dependent decision” during testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Education and Workforce Committee. And since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, pro-Palestinian protesters marched around campus chanting statements like, “From the river to the sea,” a well-known call for eliminating the state of Israel.
What can the school do to rehabilitate its image with the Jewish community?
Magill stepped down four days after her testimony. But what else can the school do?
Public relations professionals and others weighed in.
PR Professionals
Sharla Feldscher owns and operates Feldscher Horwitz Public Relations, a PR firm in South Jersey. Feldscher handled the public relations for her synagogue, Congregation M’Kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, after the murder-for-hire executed by its rabbi, Fred Neulander, against his wife, Carol Neulander.
In that situation, Feldscher and synagogue leaders wanted to make sure the media cameras never came near the children. In this situation, Penn also must start by focusing on families.
It must reach out to its Jewish students and their parents.
“They have to communicate their concern personally,” she said.
Ike Richman, the founder of Ike Richman Communications in Philadelphia, has extensive experience promoting live events. And Richman believes that the best way for Penn to promote itself now is to be refreshingly honest.
“Identify who they want to be as an institution. What their morals, what their standards are,” Richman said. “What you can ask for is forgiveness and say this is day one of a new University of Pennsylvania.”
Rachel Ezekiel-Fishbein, the founder of Making Headlines in Philadelphia, has more than 25 years of PR experience. She is also a lecturer in a Wharton School class at Penn.
Penn must deal with the antisemitism on campus and show the broader world that it’s a safe place for Jewish students.
“If people don’t apply to Penn because parents don’t want their kids going there, if donors don’t give to Penn, they’re in trouble,” Ezekiel-Fishbein said.
A Former Penn Board Member
Vahan Gureghian, the CEO of the charter school company CSMI, served on Penn’s board of trustees from 2009 to 2023. He resigned in October after the school allowed the Palestine Writes Festival to happen on campus.
Though not Jewish, Gureghian is appalled by the recent marches and hate speech on campus. He believes that when free speech becomes hate speech, like shouting, “From the river to the sea,” the university must step in with force.
“At the end of the day, the University of Pennsylvania has the largest private police department in the state of Pennsylvania,” Gureghian said. “When these marches started occurring and the marches involved hate speech, and they drew swastikas on buildings, the University of Pennsylvania’s private police department should have intervened.”
The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia
Jason Holtzman, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council within the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, thinks that Penn needs to put a stop to an anti-Israel event such as Palestine Writes.
“It will be important for Penn to state that that type of program is unacceptable on campus,” he said. “That programming or speakers in support of Jewish genocide or any type of antisemitism will not be tolerated at Penn.”
Penn Hillel
Rabbi Gabe Greenberg, the executive director at Penn Hillel, emailed a four-point plan to the Hillel community that the organization will adopt.
It includes pushing the administration to clarify “which types of statements and actions are not permissible under the current code of conduct,” reinforcing the need to communicate “the proper procedure to report a bias incident,” working with the university to implement “antisemitism training and education” and continuing Hillel’s “advocacy to reverse the declining enrollment of Jewish students at Penn.”
Penn’s Jewish student population made up about 25% of the undergraduate body in the late 2000s, according to Gureghian.
“Given all of these ambitious goals, please know that our hardest and most important work lies ahead of us,” Greenberg wrote.
That was never the way it was in the 1950’s. We loved our Jewish class mates and respected them for many reasons, one , they were so smart and 2, they were involved in activities on Campus and leaders. My heart breaks to read about what’s going on now on my beloved campus. Mary Lou Gorman Denney 1956