A rare glimpse into the antisemitism of the DEI world was provided by Tabia Lee, a black non-Jewish woman who in 2021 was hired to lead the DEI efforts of De Anza College in Northern California. In an article she wrote for the New York Post after her dismissal in 2023, Lee claimed that she was horrified, when she arrived at the college, to experience an atmosphere of antisemitic incitement and agitation. When she told her colleagues that Jewish students deserve treatment exactly like any other minority group, they replied that this was not true because Jews are Zionists, Zionism is racism and white supremacy, and therefore care should be taken, if Jewish events are allowed to take place at the college at all, that these events focus on Israeli injustices against Palestinians. Lee was appalled and immediately demanded that the college officially condemn antisemitism. The college leadership refused, and after students and colleagues in the DEI department called her derogatory names like "filthy Zionist," Lee lost her job.
The picture she painted is painful and accurate. Before Biden's election, antisemitism on campuses was limited to a few. After the Democrats' return to the White House, every university began establishing DEI departments at a dizzying pace, and staffed them with faculty members who saw hatred of Israel not only as a legitimate opinion but also as a moral duty of anyone who considers themselves a good progressive. This is why so few universities lifted a finger after October 7, when students raised Hamas and Hezbollah flags, set up tents in the heart of the campus, and attacked their Jewish friends: antisemitism in universities was the result of years of built-in policy, not a momentary and surprising outbreak.