How Semester at Sea Struggled with College Anti-Semitism on This Year’s Voyage

Jewish students were “literally confined and stuck” on a cruise ship as anti-Semitism took over this year’s Semester at Sea trip. With anti-Israel genocidal slogans plastered on doors, and on-ship performers saying Israelis were “thirsty for blood,” the dean comforted students by telling them they were fortunate it was easy to hide being Jewish, according to interviews and materials reviewed by The Daily Wire.

This year’s Semester at Sea voyage, in which college students spend a semester aboard a cruise ship traveling to different study abroad locations, took place amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza that has sparked anti-Semitic college protests around the world. Just weeks into the trip, the anti-Semitism arrived on the ship, with swaths of students wearing keffiyehs and posting anti-Israel materials throughout the ship, including on the doors of Jewish students.

“I know this is happening all over the world on college campuses, but the difference here… is our students are on a ship,” said Leora Azoulay Short, whose daughter Emily was aboard the ship. “They are literally confined and stuck on a small ship where they are feeling attacked, unsafe, and in an unfriendly environment by many of the other students.”

A mother says her daughter and other Jewish students were “literally confined and stuck” on a cruise ship as anti-Semitism took over this year’s Semester at Sea trip.

Reporter @KassyDillon spoke with her, and reviewed the evidence: pic.twitter.com/P7CXbJUKbw

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) June 20, 2024

Short said the anti-Semitism of the trip became apparent after a stop in Malaysia, a majority-Muslim country in Southeast Asia that has openly backed Palestinians against Israel. Students returned to the ship wearing keffiyehs and t-shirts with anti-Israel slogans.

Shortly after, a lecturer boarded the ship to speak about South Africa and went on a tirade about Israel, according to Short.

“Before the port of South Africa, they had a lecturer come on board… and at the end of her lecture, she made a statement to the students that many years ago South Africa had dealt with apartheid and once again, this is happening in the world with Israel,” Short said.

The next day, students reportedly woke up to anti-Israel posters around the ship, including on some Jewish students’ doors.

“They were saying, ‘from the river to the sea,’ ‘stop the genocide.’ Just all kinds of offensive and often untrue … anti-Israel propaganda that they had probably seen in Malaysia and then heard from the South African lecturer.”

A few Jewish students retaliated by ripping down the posters and scheduling a meeting with the ship’s dean, Marti Fessenden. According to Short, Fessenden told students not only that the slogans on the posters were not offensive, but also that they should be grateful they can hide their Jewish identity, unlike other minorities.

“She proceeded to tell them that they should, in fact, find themselves to be lucky and grateful that they can hide their Jewish identity and that black people do not have that opportunity,” Short said, adding that the dean eventually took back the statement after complaints from parents.

The next day, one of the Jewish students — who scheduled the meeting with Fessenden — found a letter in her mailbox with the genocidal anti-Israel slogan “from the river to the sea.”

A world map, which is a central symbol to SaS, was also vandalized with the words “terrorist” and “Nazi” written next to Israel with the Jewish state’s name crossed out and replaced with “Palestine.”

This was just the beginning of on-ship rhetoric targeting Jewish students. During a rap performance held on the ship, the spouse of a “life-long learner” who serves as a mentor on the trip accused Israel of terrorism, genocide, being “thirsty for blood,” and being “about the money,” video of the event shows.

“In Ukraine, Putin is a criminal, but Netanyahu is getting a pass like he is invisible. We picking and choosing exactly who we call a terrorist… it’s f***** up that we can’t agree what is the human side, if it ain’t white kids dying then we just let it slide,” the man rapped.

“Look at Joe Biden, he don’t even hide it. Israel is thirsty for blood and he just get behind it. Complicit in genocide America is very quiet… the point is to gentrify through occupation,” he added. “It’s about the money, it’s always about the money.”

He then broke into song encouraging the enthusiastic crowd to chant “f*** that” after he shouted “apartheid” or “genocide.”

Semester at Sea posted a video on Instagram of the performer dancing with a dean on stage during his act — the video didn’t include his comments about Israel.

While in South Africa, students visited the Desmond Tutu Foundation and had photos of them featured in the Dean’s Memo with some holding a Palestinian flag, donning keffiyehs, and holding signs calling to “stop the genocide” and stating that “Zionism is racism.”

“Since we had two extra days at port due to our diversion, we were asked to visit two places that highlighted South Africa’s rich history of human rights activism,” the memo read, adding a quote from a student who went to the Desmond Tutu Foundation and met with with the head of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Usuf Chikte. “Thanks Kam for sending in your submissions and for sharing your reflections.”

In a December interview, Chikte called Hamas “liberator fighters” and denied the atrocities Hamas committed during its October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians in a December interview.

In a March 26 email to Jewish students, Fessenden said she made a “correction” to the Dean’s Memo and that the photos were “mistakenly included.”

“As I trust you are well aware, we mistakenly included a student group photo that included antisemitic signage in the memo yesterday,” Fessenden wrote. “As soon as it was pointed out, we removed the photo. We feel awful that the language on the signage was not noticed prior to it making into the memo [sic].”

In her public correction, Fessenden apologized for “this error and any harmful impact it may have caused.”

Short said she believes Semester at Sea’s relationship with the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation is problematic in itself.

“In spite of all the good that Desmond Tutu has done, he is also known to be one of the biggest anti-Semites of our time,” Short said, referring to a label given by Alan Dershowitz. “He has continuously supported anti-Israel movements and has been really offensive to the Jewish and Israel community.”

Tutu, who died in 2021, was an anti-apartheid human rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize recipient and Anglican bishop. He also was a pro-Palestinian activist, who spoke about the “influence” of the “Jewish lobby” and who made a speech at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Museum, urging forgiveness for the Nazis.

With no signs that anti-Semitism was subsiding on the trip and at the demand of parents, Semester at Sea flew the director of Hillel of Colorado, Daniel Bennett, onto the ship to provide support.

“For the past six weeks I’ve spoken, Zoomed, and texted daily with SAS parents (helpless and furious doesn’t do justice to how they feel, and I can only assure them I will do all I can when I get to Portugal – and after),” Bennett wrote in a blog post before he boarded the ship in Portugal.

“Administrators at Colorado State University and in the SAS office in Ft. Collins now understand that what Jewish students onboard have faced is far more than garden-variety antisemitism.”

His blog claims the lecturer prior to South Africa said “Israel is a worse example of Apartheid than South Africa ever was” and that students wore t-shirts depicting the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, on the ship.

Bennet also said he spoke several times with “an onboard academic dean” who “cannot or will not check student behavior.”

According to Short, Jewish students were unable to meet with Bennett because his brief visit to the ship came while students were exploring a port.

“I don’t know if it was planned or not, but they had him fly on when the students were actually at port,” Short said. “They were aware of him being on the ship, and they were offered the opportunity to come back to the ship and meet with him but as you can imagine, most of these students already had plans and were on tours and could not make it back to meet with him.”

Bennett did not respond to a request for comment on his trip.

Semester at Sea’s Vice President of Marketing and Recruitment Jason Hughes, condemned anti-Semitism in an email to The Daily Wire. He declined to speak to the specific incidents alleged by students, and instead shared a blog post calling the past voyage “challenging” and not immune to “global happenings.”

“Like many people around the world, members of our shipboard community are impacted by the Middle East conflict,” the blog by Hughes states. “Sadness, fear, and anger over this conflict have sparked conversations and resulted in public displays of stances and beliefs. Visceral reactions to discourses and signs of support or disapproval have created discomfort for some and trepidation for others.”

Though the blog states that the program does not tolerate intolerance, it also includes a quote from Semester at Sea’s CEO stating that he welcomes last semester’s conditions on the ship.

“While we might wish that there were no challenging conditions on our ship, I don’t wish for that. I welcome it, as difficult as it may sometimes prove to be,” Scott Marshall, the president and CEO said.

While the voyage is over Short said she wants Semester at Sea to take responsibility for what students went through, and ensure its staff is better prepared for future semesters.

“I’m speaking out now because I don’t want future students to have to deal with what these students dealt with on this journey,” she said. “We know that this is going to happen again—unfortunately, this is the world we live in.”

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases