(RNS) — The number of Jewish students who feel safe on U.S. campuses dropped substantially after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, a new poll released Wednesday (Nov. 29) by the Anti-Defamation League and Hillel International, the Jewish campus organization, finds.

The poll, conducted by College Pulse, an online survey and analytics company, found that 66% of Jewish students felt “very” or “extremely” safe on campus prior to Oct. 7, but now only 45% feel the same.

The poll of 3,084 American college students, of whom 527 were Jewish, comes as both antisemitism and Islamophobia have spiked in the wake of the Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent siege on Gaza. Many Jewish students have reported feeling harassed and intimidated by pro-Palestinian rallies. Muslim students or those protesting in support of Palestinians have also reported doxxing and surveillance of their activities by Jewish groups.

The ADL and Hillel poll focused on campus antisemitism, which it has been tracking in regular polling since 2021. It comes amid growing cries for more vigorous enforcement of antisemitism and Islamophobia at schools that receive federal funds.

“Jewish Students Felt Physically Safer Before 10/07 Than They Do Now” (Graphic courtesy of Anti-Defamation League and Hillel International)

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On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into Harvard University, The Boston Globe reported. The investigation was prompted by a complaint alleging Harvard “discriminated against students on the basis of their national origin (shared Jewish ancestry and/or Israeli) when it failed to respond appropriately to reports of incidents of harassment.”

The Office for Civil Rights has opened nine such college investigations since Oct. 7, according to its website.

Meanwhile, Congress’ Committee on Education and the Workforce is calling a hearing next week with the presidents of Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania. The House committee wants to question the university leaders about mishandling antisemitic and violent incidents against Jewish students on their campuses.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather for a protest at Columbia University, Oct. 12, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

At least three colleges — Brandeis, Columbia and George Washington — have suspended or banned chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine. The national wing of SJP came under fierce scrutiny for a five-page “toolkit” distributed to campus chapters. Among the toolkit’s talking points was the statement: “We as Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement.” Jewish groups, such as the ADL, interpreted that as an endorsement of Hamas, which the U.S. considers a foreign terrorist organization. Hundreds of SJP student chapters launched protests and walkouts on campus in the days after the Oct. 7 attack, some of which have turned violent.

Israel says the Hamas militant group killed about 1,200 people, from babies to grandparents, in its Oct. 7 incursion into towns and villages just outside the Gaza Strip, which Hamas controls.The Israeli military reprisal on Gaza has killed as many as 14,800 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said last month it received 774 reports of bias incidents and requests for help from Muslims across the U.S. from Oct. 7 to Oct. 24, a 182% jump from the average 16-day period in 2022, NBC News reported.

In the ADL-Hillel poll, only 44% of Jewish students said they felt their campuses were “very” or “extremely” welcoming and supportive of Jewish students, compared with 64% before Oct. 7, a drop of 20 percentage points.

“Significantly Fewer Jewish Students Are Very Comfortable With Others Knowing They Are Jewish After 10/07” (Graphic courtesy of Anti-Defamation League and Hillel International)

The poll also showed that only 39% of Jewish students feel “very” or “extremely” comfortable with others on campus knowing they are Jewish, compared with 64% feeling comfortable before the attack.

The first wave of the survey was conducted in the summer of 2023 from July 26 to Aug. 30. The second wave of the survey was fielded one month after the Oct. 7 terror attacks, from Nov. 6-10. The polling of Jewish students for ADL and Hillel began in 2021.

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