“It started with just a bunch of Jewish students who were fed up”: Isaac de Castro on the creation of ‘Jewish on Campus’

Isaac de Castro, an activist and journalist who was integral to the creation of the ‘Jewish on Campus’ movement, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke openly about the challenges Jewish students in the United States are facing.

Mr de Castro said that “‘Jewish on Campus’ started with just a bunch of Jewish students who were fed up and were meeting on the internet at the very beginning, and height of, [COVID-19]. We were all stuck at home online yelling into the void about what was happening to us on college campuses and how difficult that was and at the same time, everyone was turning to social media to do activism in which they were dragging in antisemitism.

“That, I think, was very fresh and very stressful to everyone. We thought of the stakes of speaking out on antisemitism and how it became so taboo to talk about it because Jews are not perceived as an oppressed group or because supporting Israel is seen as a very, very negative thing on college campuses.”

He explained that the way the organisation managed to convince students to say what was happening to them was to anonymise it.

“[The movement] grew exponentially…thousands of followers a day,” he said. “It was really special, and it was a catalyst for understanding antisemitism on college campuses in the United States. I think people were not really getting the scope of it and these stories put a face to it because it wasn’t just numbers of how many Jewish students have faced antisemitism in which campuses, it was ‘this is my story, this is what I went through, this is what my professor said to me, this is what my peers said to me.’ There was no way of denying how powerful that was.”

When asked what advice he would offer to Jewish students experiencing antisemitism, the activist said: “Find community, whether its a Hillel House or the Jewish student union or confiding in ‘Jewish on Campus’, confiding in Jewish friends. I think it’s very, very important to not isolate yourself and to have like-minded people in which you can confide in because dealing with that by yourself is not great. You’re stronger when you’re united.”

Mr de Castro’s work also looks at the stories of Latino Jews of Sephardic descent, which is the focus of his newest project.

Mr de Castro, himself a Panamanian Jew of both Ashkenazi and Sephardi descent who now lives in the United States, said that his work has been inspired by speaking to people who “have no idea what these communities are like.” 

Speaking on some of the many generations of Latino Jews now living in the United States, Mr de Castro said that “There is a difference in terms of outspokenness, in terms of antisemitism or even understanding antisemitism…there is a difference for sure.”

Throughout the interview, Mr de Castro touched upon a variety of other issues which included his own story of moving to the United States and Jewcy, the Jewish magazine at which he is the editor.

The podcast with Mr de Castro can be listened to here, or watched here.

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.