STORRS, Conn. — Students at UConn said they're feeling anxious and scared right now, worried about their safety off and on campus.
“It feels like it's only a matter of time when something will happen here,” said Hodaya Naor, an Israeli Exchange Student at UConn.
“It’s extremely difficult to just call every morning to my family and my friends and to ask them how they are,” she Naor. “I mean, I want to be in Israel, even if it's not safe there.”
Naor and her fellow students said they feel unsafe here, too.
“It’s hard to find Jews that don’t know either someone, or have a friend, or know a friend that has a friend that’s either been kidnapped or killed or something else,” explained UConn senior Leo Gold. “This is affecting us as Jews and this is really impacting us.”
The Anti-Defamation League reported a nearly 400% increase in antisemitic incidents since Hamas’ attack on October 7. They’ve noted rising harassment, vandalism, and assault.
“My mom for one has told me multiple times to not express that I’m Jewish, to not let people know that I’m Jewish unless it's necessary,” said Liv Rayner, a junior at UConn. “She was worried that I’m a woman, I’m alone, I’m Jewish, I’m a target.”
Now the state is trying to combat this. This week, Gov. Ned Lamont called for a meeting of higher education security officials to evaluate methods of combating hate crimes on college campuses.
“I think tensions are really ramping up, there’s a lot of examples of hate speech out there, racist speech, antisemitic speech, islamophobia,” Lamont said.
He called these growing incidents “dangerous” and said this meeting would take place as soon as possible, hopefully within the next two weeks.
Students at UConn said this is a good idea, but also believe their safety is about more than just law enforcement.
“We don’t want to see what’s going on at these other universities come here,” Gold said. “We don’t want to have to take reactionary measures. We’d rather try to prevent that now.”
“I don’t want to walk around campus, I don’t want security guards being here at Hillel just so we feel safe. We can just like, I don't know, do more stuff to just sit and speak with these people. Just hear each other," Naor added.
Emma Wulfhorst is a political reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at ewulfhorst@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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