When protesters swarmed college campuses last October to demonstrate for Hamas following the terror group’s horrific attack against Israel, Franciscan University of Steubenville responded with a message of peace and assistance: The university would become a haven for Jewish students.

While no Jewish students have transferred yet, the university’s offer still stands. This school year, the university maintains that promise as it seeks to cultivate a welcoming environment for any Jewish student who feels unsafe.

In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel, university administrators met to discuss how the school could respond. Stephen Hildebrand, the school’s vice president for academic affairs, said the school should find a way to welcome Jewish students who feel unsafe on their college campuses due to the protests. “It was really a kind of moral response to what was happening. We felt that it was the right thing to do,” Hildebrand told the Register. “We felt that it was the brotherly thing to do.”

The idea came while Franciscan was working with the Philos Project, a nonprofit dedicated to establishing peace in the Middle East, to plan an antisemitism conference at the university, located in Steubenville, Ohio. While the preparations were underway, the Oct. 7 attack occurred, and Philos project member Andrew Doran, a Franciscan graduate and former staff member in the Department of State, proposed expediting transfer requests for Jewish students to Hildebrand.

“At the time of the Oct. 7 attacks, we were planning a conference, a conference on antisemitism, and Andrew had this idea and said, ‘With these protests breaking out on college campuses, what if Franciscan offered a safe haven for these students, a place to go where they wouldn’t be harassed,’” Hildebrand explained.

“I immediately loved the idea and brought it to our executive team.”

After the announcement, the university received multiple transfer inquiries from Jewish students, but, to date, no Jewish students have transferred in.

Hildebrand shared that the college did not expect many Jewish students to transfer due to the university’s unapologetically Catholic nature.

“We made the offer, but we knew going in that, for most secular Jews, and most practicing Jews for different reasons, Franciscan would not be their first choice,” Hildebrand said. “Franciscan is not what you might call a classically liberal university, which means that a school does not profess any religion. We are unapologetically and confessionally Catholic. We don’t hide our identity. We don’t pretend to be something else.”

The Catholic response was immediate, according to Hildebrand. “There were a lot of people calling us, calling the president, or sending emails thanking us for doing this. We even got some notes from scholars at other universities offering to help us by teaching virtual classes for students who transferred in.”

Franciscan’s efforts have also been applauded by the Jewish community.

In The Jewish Press, David Israel wrote, “The leadership of Franciscan University expressed a clear and unwavering stance on reaching out to Jewish students and emphasized their belief that other colleges should take more substantial measures to safeguard them.”

Last May, the college had a serious inquiry from one student, and she expressed her intent to transfer at the beginning of the new academic year. However, the student furloughed her enrollment until the 2025 spring semester.

“I met with her, and her father was with her when they visited; and what really brought them was that they wanted a place where she could go and feel safe and not be harassed,” Hildebrand said.

“One of the things I was really looking forward to: what her presence would mean for our students,” Hildebrand continued. “Her different background would bring new opportunities for formation, for conversation. Our students would learn how to listen, how to discuss these kinds of differences, which lead to meaningful encounters. One of the things I think we want to show our students is how to understand, how to treat, how to relate to people who are of a different religion.”

While the student may not be at Franciscan yet, Hildebrand believes that the college’s example in reaching out to the Jewish community modeled how Catholics should support those who are experiencing persecution, including the Church’s elder brothers and sisters, as John Paul II phrased it.

When the administration announced the initiative, the student body responded positively. Samantha Oswald, a graduate student at Franciscan, shared with the Register that she admired the example the school has set.

“Across the Scriptures, we are called to be generous to those in need,” Oswald said. “I think that it is beautiful that Father Dave Pivonka and our administration desired to practically implement this call by extending a welcoming home to our brothers and sisters in faith. I have loved my time here at Franciscan and consider it a home, and to be able to share that with other college students who have not found a welcoming environment at their own universities is a blessing.”

The university maintains its promise: It will help students in the transfer process and offer a welcoming community for any Jewish student seeking a safe place to study.

Hildebrand said: “Part of the initial offer was an expedited transfer process; now, that may not be necessary anymore — but if campuses go bananas again this fall, we would help expedite the transfer process again and help students who need a safe community to study in.”