anti-semitism

It’s Time to Purge Your Universities of Anti-Semitism

December 4, 2019
By Richard L. Cravatts

This is an open letter by the author addressed to the administrators of McGill, York, and the University of Toronto. As you are certainly aware, in recent weeks a series of troubling incidents has occurred on your respective campuses. While the events in question were distinct, they all shared a common impulse by a groups […]

Rampant Hypocrisy at UMass

May 3, 2019
By Daphne Patai

Which is it? Do universities these days want to be zones where no one will ever get offended, or do they want to promote free speech and academic freedom with all their attendant risks and discomforts? The University of Massachusetts Amherst is just one place that can’t make up its mind. For years now it […]

BDS: Jew-Hating Propagandists on the March

March 16, 2016
By Peter Wood

The anti-Semitic Boycott-Divest-Sanction (BDS) movement against Israel keeps reaching for—and finding—new depths of indecency. Among the deepest descenders into this abyss is Jasbir Puar, an associate professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers. Professor Puar recently garnered national attention for her address at Vassar, February 3, “Inhumanist Biopolitics: How Palestine Matters.” The talk has […]

Worry about Islamophobia, but Not Anti-Semitism

March 14, 2016
By Corinne E. Blackmer

Southern Connecticut State University, where I teach, has gone to great lengths to accommodate Muslims — and reject the slightest manifestations of Islamophobia — while acting complacently toward egregious anti-Semitism and hate crimes. Concurrently, widely publicized events at Vassar and Oberlin Colleges reveal that displays of anti-Semitism typically cause uproar within the Jewish community but […]

UCal Regents Strike Back at Napolitano

September 25, 2015
By John Ellis

On September 17 a committee of the Regents of the University of California discussed at their regular meeting a proposed “Statement of Principles against Intolerance” that had been drafted and offered for their approval by President Janet Napolitano and her staff. The Regents resoundingly rejected the draft, by implication questioning Napolitano’s judgment that it was […]

Checking In on Yale’s New Anti-Semitism Program

March 27, 2012
By KC Johnson

Did the shuttering last year of a Yale institute created to study anti-Semitism have anything to do with campus politics? The university denied it. But the Yale Interdisciplinary Initiative for the Study of Anti-Semitism (YIISA) was eliminated amid attacks from Palestinian representatives and anti-Israel faculty.

Facing Down Anti-Semitism on Campus

September 16, 2011
By Herb London

At long last an attempt is bring made to curtail blatant anti-Semitic commentary on American campuses. The Israel Law Center warns that colleges and universities “may be liable for massive damage” if they fail to prevent anti-Semitism. The center sent hundreds of letters to university presidents drawing a line in the sand. This Israel civil […]

Yale’s New, Neutered, Anti-Semitism Program

June 21, 2011
By KC Johnson

A few weeks ago, Yale announced that it had terminated the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-semitism (YIISA). The official version of events, according to university spokespersons, cited two reasons: (1) an alleged failure by Yale professors affiliated with the institute to produce a sufficient level of scholarship; and (2) an alleged lack […]

Yale Professor Deems Anti-Semitism Initiative Too Pro-Israel

June 14, 2011
By KC Johnson

Decisions about academic programs rarely appear as the subject of op-eds in major newspapers. But In today’s Washington Post, Walter Reich, a George Washington University professor and a member of the international academic board of advisors of the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism (YIISA), denounced Yale’s controversial decision to terminate the initiative. […]

Yale Eliminates Its Initiative Studying Anti-Semitism

June 8, 2011
By KC Johnson

The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism (YIISA) was established nearly five years ago, the fourth university center in the world devoted to the subject ( after the Technical University of Berlin, and Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University ) and the first in the United States. Now, in a surprise announcement, Yale is eliminating the center because […]

CUNY Trustees Stand Up Against Faculty’s Anti-Israel Sentiments

May 5, 2011
By KC Johnson

Over the past year, it seems as if faculty at the City University of New York have done everything they can to make it seem as if hostility to Israel is the institution‘s official policy. First came Brooklyn College‘s decision to assign as the one and only required book for all incoming students a book […]

Fighting Back Against Campus Anti-Semitism

March 28, 2011
By Kenneth L. Marcus

One day last March Jessica Felber, then 20, a Jewish undergraduate at the University of California at Berkeley, was standing on her campus, holding a placard bearing the words: “Israel Wants Peace.” At that moment, Husam Zakaria, a Berkeley student leader of Students for Justice in Palestine, reportedly rammed Felber from behind so hard with […]

Awards for Reporting about Anti-Semitism on Campus

February 16, 2011
By Frank Macchiarola

At the Student Free Press Association, we’ve partnered with the Institute for Jewish & Community Research to establish $1000 awards for excellence in student reporting on anti-Semitism. To learn how to enter, go here. From the press release: Campuses have become staging grounds for campaigns demonizing Israel, intimidating Jewish students and threatening the foundation of […]

Anti-Apartheid Week – 2

March 3, 2010
By Ron Radosh

Growing Anti-Semitism On The Campus The sad evidence that American campuses have been the site of rising anti-Semitism is truly an alarming phenomenon. Anti-Semitism has come from various sources: African-American student organizations; the Muslim Student Association at various colleges and universities, and the widespread movement on behalf of disinvestment in Israel, whose sponsors regularly compares […]

How UT-Austin Administrators Destroyed an Intellectual Diversity Initiative

"Universities no longer even maintain the pretense of dispassionate rational and free inquiry, focusing instead on a particularly toxic and frankly absurd form of 'social-justice' activism, increasingly even in the hard sciences. Why does this situation persist? Here, I can contribute to our understanding, having had a front-row seat to perhaps the most spectacular failure of a higher-education reform effort in recent memory: the 'Liberty Institute' at the University of Texas at Austin." - The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, 7/1/22

GW defends Thomas appointment amid calls for removal from law school

"George Washington University rejected calls to remove Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from its law school faculty by students and others frustratedover the judge’s vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and his urging to reconsider other landmark civil rights cases. In a message to the campus this week, officials defended Thomas, who has lectured at the law school since 2011." - Washington Post, 7/1/22

Va. Community College System Board Pressured by Governor

"The board of the Virginia Community College System agreed Wednesday to add a representative of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s administration to the search committee for a new chancellor. The move came after Youngkin told board members to include his administration in the search process or resign, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. Youngkin has been pushing to be involved in the search for several months." - Inside Higher Ed, 7/1/22

Mills Becomes a Part of Northeastern

"Mills College officially becomes part of Northeastern University today. The merger was first announced last June, and it was opposed by some students and faculty at Mills. Current Mills students can graduate from Mills or transfer to Northeastern at no expense. Mills, historically a women’s college, will become 'gender inclusive.'" - Inside Higher Ed, 7/1/22

Repairing the Road for Returning Students

"To stabilize enrollment and ensure their long-term viability going forward, institutions of higher education must look beyond the declining pool of first-time, full-time learners and place their focus on the estimated 36 million students in the U.S. with some college credit but no degree. This is also a social and economic justice imperative at a time when an increasing number of new jobs require education or training beyond high school—yet individuals from racial and ethnic minority groups are disproportionately represented in low-wage career paths." - Inside Higher Ed, 7/1/22

Abortion Is a Higher-Ed Issue

"Let’s be clear: Abortion is a higher-ed issue. Most abortions in the U.S. are provided to women in their 20s, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Women aged 20 to 24 accounted for 28 percent of abortions, while those aged 25 to 29 accounted for 29 percent. ... Abortion makes it possible for students to pursue, and complete, higher education. Research has shown that the 'most common reason' young people drop out of college is unplanned pregnancy." - Chronicle of Higher Education, 6/30/22

Montgomery Co. schools revise history curriculum in 4th, 5th grades

"Montgomery County Public Schools’ new social studies framework will expose fourth- and fifth-graders to more American history — particularly Black history — at a younger age. The new curriculum will incorporate anti-bias and anti-racist content and local history about Montgomery County, according to Tracy Oliver-Gary, the district’s social studies supervisor. It was presented to the county school board this week and received unanimous approval." - Washington Post, 6/30/22

Learning From Asian-American Success

"Americans can learn from Asian-American success. Parents should expect more, not less, from their children. Of course, such expectations can go too far. But they need not be overdone to improve academic achievement. Canceling honors classes, moving unprepared students ahead, and implying that Indian-American students should 'play small' is certainly not the answer. Life is not a zero-sum game. The successes of some should inspire others to do better, not fuel bitterness and envy." - City Journal, 6/30/22

Columbia U. Won’t Submit Data to ‘U.S. News’ Rankings After Professor Alleged False Information

"Columbia University will not submit data to U.S. News & World Report for the next edition of its college rankings, the provost announced on Thursday, citing an active institutional review prompted by allegations that the university had provided false data to the magazine. ... Michael Thaddeus, a professor of mathematics at Columbia, this year accused the university of submitting inaccurate information to U.S. News." - Chronicle of Higher Education, 6/30/22

Culture wars cover up economic realities on campus

"'Culture' is often the reason given for campus conflicts over issues such as free speech. But they aren’t really cultural issues; they’re economic ones. As the bad economic news keeps rolling in for U.S. colleges and universities (from the Big Quit and inflationary pressures to the demographic cliff), it’s important to keep in mind that economic realities, not cultural ones, largely underpin volatile campus political dynamics." - The Hill, 6/30/22