The strange outburst of pro-Hamas, antisemitic demonstrations on multiple college campuses in recent weeks suggests that it's more than a fringe of the student body that finds this repugnant kind of protest appealling.

Now a new Harvard/Harris poll confirms it:

New Harvard/Harris poll results: 67% of respondents aged 18-24 agree that "Jews as a class are oppressors and should be treated as oppressors," 60% of respondents aged 18-24 agree that Hamas’ October 7th massacre can be justified by the grievances of Palestinians, and 31% of… pic.twitter.com/Ma5WHLO1OO

— Eden Cohen вњЎпёЋ ЧўЧ“Чџ Ч›Ч”Чџ (@edencohentweets) December 16, 2023

On page 57 of the poll, 67% of young, college-age voters, ages 18-24, think Jews as a class are "oppressors." By contrast, only 9% of people aged 65 or older think such thoughts.

Something happened that twisted the minds of the young for them to adopt such repellent views.

Some possibilities include the influence of TikTok, which seems to be the petri dish for antisemitic propaganda, and the young are its biggest consumers.

But there is also the influence of their schools and teachers. How is one to explain someone like this?

A Maryland teachers’ union official, Angela Wolf, is under investigation for allegedly spreading antisemitism online. She reportedly compiled a list of wealthy Jews in her country and called them “gluttons and thieves.” In addition, Wolf allegedly made derogatory comments about Israel on social media. 

While on leave from her teaching position, she remains a prominent teachers’ union board member. According to the Daily Wire, Wolf, who heads an English department at Takoma Park Middle School in left-leaning Montgomery County, penned a series of anti-Israel online rants. Consequently, her bosses sent her home.

In December 2022, Wolf posted the names and alleged net worth of five wealthy locals with Jewish last names. She also accused them of being crooks. She wrote that they have not invented or done anything to help their communities on Facebook. “They are gluttons and thieves,” Wolf wrote on Facebook.

“They accumulated this kind of wealth through abusing workers.” 

This antisemitic freak was a leader, telling other teachers what they should do, and her activities stretched over months and months without so much as a blink from her fellow union leaders. Obviously, a rotten culture is happening there, as if we didn't know it already based on other indicators.

Besides having hideous people like this allowed to be around children, a second problem is that very little teaching -- about the Holocaust, about Israel, about Jewish people, about antisemitism -- goes on at these places of higher learning. What kind of Holocaust education do kids get these days? It may well be that the only people they hear from are the deniers.

Obviously, the picture is unfolding, and this needs far more study, but it signals some kind of moral crisis. It's astonishing that the young generation should sound like the Hitler generation, while older generations harbor far more reasonable and fair minded people.

Something has contaminated the youth pool and the suspect list needs much, much, more examination if it is to be rooted out. Jew-hate should be an ugly memory, not the next hot trend among the young people.

Image: Hossam el-Hamalawy, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED