Non-Jewish Hispanic U.S. journalism students visited Nazi concentration camps in Poland through a Fuente Latina initiative that provides a critical historical perspective on current events.
The program comes at a pivotal moment as efforts to ostracize Jews from academic life intensify on campuses, Holocaust denial gains traction on social media, and antisemitic violence rises worldwide.
About 20% of U.S. college students identify as Hispanic, with continued growth expected in the coming years.
Fuente Latina brought five non-Jewish Hispanic students to key Holocaust sites, including Auschwitz, the Warsaw Ghetto and Oskar Schindler’s enamel factory in Krakow.
During the program, they studied the Holocaust with a Spanish-speaking scholar and interviewed a survivor who emigrated to Peru, gaining firsthand insight into how early boycotts escalated into the industrialized murder of 6 million Jews during World War II and the lessons it holds for today.
The Fuente Latina experience comes amid a documented rise in antisemitism on college campuses. Since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, thousands of antisemitic incidents have been reported across the world, with many Jewish students facing intimidation in classrooms and exclusion from academic life.
New York University student Lucía Alonso said the Fuente Latina program helps aspiring journalists “better understand the current crisis through the lens of Jewish history and potentially help prevent antisemitism in our own communities.”
She added that it provided “an excellent foundation to report on antisemitism and combat it.”
As universities become key battlegrounds shaping young people’s views on Jews and Israel, this program places the world’s oldest hatred in a modern context and helps non-Jewish students better understand what their Jewish classmates face.
“At a time when misinformation spreads faster than facts, this Fellowship equips emerging media professionals with the context and perspective to navigate today’s information environment and report on current events with greater accuracy tomorrow,” said Leah Soibel, founder and CEO of Fuente Latina.
Its student fellowship, launched in August, aims to build relationships with future Latino media professionals. Since its inception, 15 Hispanic students have traveled to Poland and Israel through the program, producing dozens of accurate, compelling bilingual news stories tailored for Gen Z and Millennial audiences.
Through these programs, students visit key sites, engage with newsmakers and report on major stories, earning international bylines. As the fellowship grows, Fuente Latina aims to expand these experiences, helping ensure emerging journalists report with clarity, context and responsibility at a time of rising misinformation.
For more information, email Harry Toledo at: harry@fuentelatina.org.
