Just over a month after Lee Shaffer started his new job as Emory University Hillel Campus Director, pro-Palestinian protests began on campus following days of other demonstrations at universities across the U.S.
“I’m still enjoying the new role, although it is absolutely baptism by fire!” he wrote in email after his initial interview.
Days earlier, Shaffer said he didn’t yet know what his biggest challenge was going to be at his new job. He thought finding all the Jewish students on campus would be at the top of his list. Instead, he found that his biggest concern was ensuring the safety of Jewish students in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
That concern didn’t happen in a vacuum. There had been a few isolated incidents on Emory’s campus that have made Jewish students feel unsafe, according to the Anti Defamation League. The ADL categorized these incidents as “harassment” in a “C” grade given to Emory in the ADL’s Campus Antisemitism Report Card, published on April 12.
Specifically, the Emory’s ADL report card stated: “In October 2023, students were accused of chanting antisemitic phrases during pro-Palestinian protests. Weeks later, a Jewish student wearing a yarmulke was allegedly harassed when he passed a Palestinian relief organization tabling on campus. Similar incidents have occurred in previous years, including a student who said she was harassed by peers for traveling on Birthright Israel.”
Eytan Davidson, ADL’s southeast regional director, said the impetus for creating this “active” report card was the ADL’s perception of a worrying increase in anti-Israel messaging “crossing the line into antisemitism and a real concern of what universities were doing and not doing” in response to Oct. 7.
Shaffer responded to the “C” grade by emphasizing that Hillel International wasn’t a participant in ADL’s report card.
“I’d like to learn more about their rationale,” he said.
In all aspects of his job, Shaffer sees three constituencies: the student population, parents, and Emory staff.
According to Shaffer, some Emory students are very pro-Israel, some anti-Israel and some “down the middle.” Even those who criticize Israel are not actually anti-Israel, he contends.
“They are trying to figure out who they are and there’s a natural tendency to move away from what their parents tell them,” Shaffer said.
But, he said, many Jewish Emory students feel a “palpable fear that they are not wanted because they are Jewish. These are real fears, and it’s not supposed to be that way.”
Days after the protests at Emory made national headlines, Shaffer said Jewish students there “don’t want to be blamed for the situation; they don’t want to be singled out anymore. They just want to finish the semester.”
The father of three pre-college-age children, Shaffer holds a special affinity for young people. He started his career more than 20 years ago as Gold Coast regional director of BBYO Inc. In that position, he facilitated a 130% increase in community participation while training and managing a four-person staff. He helped train student leaders on outreach, problem solving, interpersonal and communication skills, and unity/conflict resolution.
He then became associate director/program director for Hillel at the University of Georgia for a few years. For the past decade, he has worked in the senior living industry as a business development director, regional sales manager and regional admissions director.
He said he feels like this career has come full circle.
“In a different world, I would never have left the Jewish communal world,” he said. “Working with senior citizens is different. I love the college-age group. I see the optimism in their eyes. The last vestiges of childhood are gone and they feel they can take on the world. They are wide-eyed. I believe in these students.”
As Emory’s Hillel director, Shaffer wants to re-engage Jewish students into Jewish adulthood after many disengaged after their b’nai mitzvahs.
“I want to make sure each student has the Jewish experience they want, whether it’s cultural, religious or social,” he said.