Students Create Platform to Document Rise in Anti-Semitic Incidents at Concordia University

Students at Concordia University are documenting cases of anti-Semitism that occur on campus and making them public on a new platform, Concordiavoices.ca.

“Concordia Voices is basically a website to publicly record, document, and display all of the incidents that have been basically dismissed and isolated and just put down by the administration,” said Anastasia Zorchinsky, co-founder of the university club Startup Nation Montreal which created the website.

Zorchinsky said the website makes public the concerns raised by students and community members, as complaints about such incidents have been handled privately by school administration.

“Ambiguity keeps campus anti-Semitism alive,” she said in an interview. “So this platform is really made for students to keep documenting and keep submitting their anonymous testimonies.”

Incidents documented on the website include a campus riot that occurred on Nov. 8, 2023, when Startup Nation had a pro-Israel table set up in the Henry F. Hall building. A large crowd surrounded the table and started yelling at the Jewish students; things then turned physical and security stepped in, according to the website. One student was punched in the face while others had bottles of water thrown at them.

The website also documents an incident on March 12, 2024, in which Jewish students barricaded themselves in a room as some individuals banged on the door, threw things at the windows, and shouted chants like “Zionists are dogs,” according to the website. It also documents various campus walkouts in protest of Israeli’s actions in the Gaza Strip, and incidents where students were blocked from going to class.

“We hope that this database that puts things together in perspective, helps people make the right decisions, and be aware of the facts,” Zorchinsky said.

The Epoch Times attempted to contact Concordia University administration for comment but did not hear back by publication time.

Zorchinsky said that despite a peace process in the Israel–Hamas war, there are still incidents that raise concerns.

“The fact that the peace process happened doesn’t mean that the ideology is still gone. The ideology is going to fester and then come out at any point,” she said, adding that “silence doesn’t equal safety, because we keep seeing incidents behind the scenes.”

Zorchinsky said that they are hoping other universities start doing the same thing to document such incidents.

“We just feel that this can really be a project that other universities can copy, paste, and bring to their campus, because we have to show that this is not isolated,” she said. “This is consistent, and it’s all across Canada.”