The explosion of antisemitic protests and riots at elite universities across the United States in the wake of the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, has shocked Americans — and the world.
Elite university administrators struggled to find the words to condemn the murder of innocent Israeli civilians. Leading university presidents, testifying before Congress, refused to say that calling for the genocide of Jews would be a violation campus rules.
To be clear: mere criticism of Israel is not antisemitic. But calling for an end to the existence of Israel is antisemitic, especially in the wake of the October 7 attack, when it became apparent that Jews in the region would be vulnerable to genocidal violence without the protection of the State of Israel.
In some cases, Jewish religious institutions have been specifically targeted by anti-Israel protests, as well as Jews, or Jewish-owned businesses. In others, antisemitic prejudice was implicit, but no less real.
Resolving the crisis requires that we understand its deep roots.
1. Non-uniformity. It is important to acknowledge that antisemitism is not uniform across American campuses. Some saw no anti-Israel protests at all after October 7, and a few — such as Southern Methodist University — saw pro-Israel demonstrations. Generally, the institutions that saw the worst anti-Israel and antisemitic activism were in the Northeast, the Midwest, and on the West Coast. Elite institutions seemed to be hardest hit, including Harvard — once the most pro-Israel campus in the Ivy League.
2. Institutional bias. Many elite universities were steeped in antisemitic prejudice through the early twentieth centuries. That bigotry disappeared in the postwar era. But in the last few decades, Middle East Studies departments emerged, and most were dominated by radical scholars in the mould of Edward Said, the Palestinian intellectual whose Orientalism defined post-colonial studies. Arab regimes donated money to these departments, and to Islamic Studies; Israel made no similar investments abroad.
3. Critical theory. In the 1990s, the emergence of Critical Race Theory at Harvard and elsewhere had a profound effect on academic attitudes toward Israel — and to Jews. In the new taxonomy, Jews were considered, by virtue of their success, to be among the morally suspect “privileged” groups. Likewise, Israel was recast as an oppressive, occupying, settler-colonial state, not as a successful post-colonial effort by determined refugees who had survived the worst genocide in the history of the world.
4. Demographic change. American campuses became increasingly diverse, which is not a bad thing — but that diversity was often artificially accelerated through affirmative action and “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) policies, which tended to discriminate against Jews, as well as Asians. Jewish enrollment began to decline at elite universities, while first-generation Muslim immigrants began to arrive on campus — many of whom brought with them cultural attitudes of hostility toward Israel.
5. Social justice. The role of the American university has been changing since the late 1960s. Many institutions are no longer content to be providers of education, centers of inquiry, and repositories of tradition. Rather, they measure themselves by their contribution to utopian visions of egalitarian social change. Students are therefore not trained in the classics, nor do they even receive a basic civic education. Rather, they are trained in the thought and practice of revolutionary thought and radical activism.
6. Cancel culture. The last decade has seen an assault on free speech on campus, making it almost impossible for anyone not on the far-left to express an opinion. Students at elite universities have sought to silence speakers, and even to prevent the wearing of Halloween costumes, on the argument that controversial speech or expression is a form of “violence” against those who disagree. Conservative and even left-of-center faculty members have been silenced, leaving few to resist radical extremists.
7. Social media. The emergence of social media, especially platforms such as TikTok, has profoundly affected the worldview of young people, as well as the cultural and political environment on campus. Students are more likely to obtain their information about current events from social media than from the news or from what they learn in their classrooms. While Israeli students start university after army service, after some real-world experience, American students are more easily influenced and misled.
8. Well-funded anti-Israel groups. Several students groups have been formed in recent years that specifically promote anti-Israel extremism, such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). According to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), “SJP’s founders, financial patrons and ideological supporters have been linked to Islamist and Palestinian terror organizations such as Hamas, Hizbullah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
There are also well-funded Jewish groups, such as Hillel, which is primarily a community institution and not specifically devoted to pro-Israel activism. But far-left efforts such as Open Hillel seek to infiltrate radical activists into Hillel and confront Jewish students with criticisms of Israel. Open Hillel, in turn, is backed by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Some BDS groups are funded by George Soros. J Street, a lobby group that opposes Israeli policy, also has a campus presence.
What is the answer? Some universities may be beyond repair. But there are still centers of excellence that retain their focus on core educational values. It would be helpful to direct donors to these. Congress should also investigate universities that receive federal funding and allow themselves to be used as platforms for delegitimizing Israel.
Above all, it is necessary to return universities to their purpose: to preserve and spread knowledge, not to train the shock troops of the next Cultural Revolution.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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