On October 7, 2023, the world changed forever. The conversations I was having about college on social media went from discussing SAT and GPA scores to how safe a school was for our Jewish students. Seemingly overnight, American college campuses were filled with protestors chanting anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric. Parents were understandably afraid for their children. Meanwhile my own son, who was a high school senior at the time, was beginning to send out college applications.

I didn’t want current college students to feel unsafe and I wanted high school kids to know what was happening on these campuses so they could make an informed choice. So, three weeks later, on October 26, 2023, I launched Mothers Against College Antisemitism on Facebook which I modeled after Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Candace Lightner was an ordinary mother who rallied other ordinary mothers to make legal and societal changes surrounding drunk driving. Her work enacted the 1984 federal law, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, and by 1988 every state in the county made the necessary adjustments to their laws. But the group did something else; they made it socially unacceptable to drink and drive. The concept of a “designated driver” and/or calling a ride share came from MADD. And now, all these years later, we won’t look back.

As Jewish mothers (and fathers, grandparents, or any concerned citizen), we have a responsibility to keep our kids safe when they go off to college. But we are more than just their families, we are consumers. We may find ourselves paying upwards of $300,000 to send our kids to college. We should have a say. There is nothing else in the world you will pay this much money for and not be able to speak up about it.

My goal was to empower Jewish parents and our allies. To let them know they have every right to contact the university they are paying tuition to and let them know they expect their kids to be safe. To call their legislators, to show up on those campuses where possible and to not remain silent in the face of rampant Jew hate.

In the year and a half since the founding of MACA, there have been many changes. We grew rapidly and now boast over 60,000 members across the United States. In December 2024, we became a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization to raise funds for our goals. We often partner with other organizations in our letter writing campaigns and in out MACAbees on The Ground program. We constantly assess and decide what works and what doesn’t as the political climate changes. We encourage our members to act. Contact their state representatives, their student’s college administrators and Jewish organizations on campus. We’ve learned that there is strength in numbers, and that is the power of MACA.

More than anything else, we have created a safe space on social media for Jewish parents. To get advice, to meet each other, to get honest feedback and to ask questions we probably can’t ask anywhere else.

We know now that much of the antisemitism and support for terrorist organizations is not grassroots or homegrown. We have foreign actors who donate large sums of money to our universities. We have American universities with foreign students who may not be here for the right reasons. It’s often hard to find ways to combat hatred that seems so powerful and all-encompassing. But the Jewish people have prevailed through the most difficult times imaginable, and we remain hopeful, strong, diligent and united in our goal; to make antisemitism legally and socially unacceptable on campuses and to end it everywhere else. Please join us.