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I Was Shunned at Princeton for Being a Zionist; We Must Actively Ensure Academic Diversity Now
A pro-Hamas group splattered red paint, symbolizing spilled blood, on an administrative building at Princeton University. Photo: Screenshot
Universities were once celebrated as arenas of free thought, where diverse ideas could challenge one another, and truth could emerge from debate. However, a new form of intolerance has gripped campuses worldwide, stifling intellectual diversity and turning academic institutions into echo chambers.
My experience at Princeton University illustrates the extent of this culture of suppression and the dangerous consequences it poses for education.
On March 27, 2023, I was invited to speak about Israel’s legal system dispute at the Center for Jewish Life at Princeton. Although I have never hidden my Jewish identity, this was the first time I was invited to speak publicly about Israel. Until then, I was focused on my work as associate research scholar and lecturer, as part of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions in the Department of Politics at Princeton University.
As the event date approached, several professors from other departments pressured the organizers to cancel my lecture, arguing that my Zionist viewpoints had no place on campus. The irony was glaring: a university that prides itself on diversity was actively working to silence a viewpoint that didn’t fit the accepted narrative.
On the day of the lecture, I was escorted through a back entrance by campus security. A group of student protesters, encouraged by faculty members, had blocked the main entrance. Their signs read “Racist,” “Democracy for Israelis and Palestinians,” “No Democracy under Apartheid,” and “No Blank Check for Apartheid.”
These were not calls for dialogue, but declarations that dissenting voices were unwelcome. The protest wasn’t about what I might say; it was about sending a message: those who defy the prevailing ideology will face resistance.
Some rioters and demonstrators forcefully entered the building, creating a tense atmosphere charged with disapproval from a faculty that once championed open inquiry. Unfortunately, the lecture was repeatedly disrupted — shouts through megaphones, the beating of drums outside the hall, and verbal outbursts interrupting nearly every sentence from people inside. I could not finish a single sentence. After enduring these disruptions for an extended period, I saw no point in continuing the lecture. Ultimately, the police escorted me back to my car.
Today, many academics see their role as enforcing ideological conformity, leaving no room for genuine debate. My lecture was just one skirmish in a broader battle to reshape the university into a space devoid of diverse perspectives. The hostility extended beyond the lecture hall, revealing a deeper and more systemic issue within the academic environment.
Despite the staunch defense of the Madison program and the colleagues who worked with me on a daily basis, the attacks against me did not stop. Professors defamed me, wrote letters against me, tried to cancel my course, and organized a media persecution campaign. The backlash against my presence escalated in campus publications, where I was labeled an extremist — not for my work, but for my conservative and Zionist beliefs. This wasn’t about academic discourse; it was an ideological purge.
What saddened me the most was that my request for a personal meeting with the president or dean of the university was refused.
This episode is emblematic of a larger trend: the suffocation of intellectual diversity and the rise of a new orthodoxy that threatens the foundational values of academic freedom.
At universities everywhere, professors have been pushing for changes to the hiring process that would prioritize ideological alignment over academic excellence. Their goal is clear: to exclude scholars who don’t fit the desired mold, ensuring a uniform intellectual environment.
The future of education depends on our ability to resist this tide of conformity and reclaim the university as a place where all ideas, even those that challenge the status quo, can be heard.
Universities are acting more like the institutions of the Middle Ages that enforced a single, dominant ideology. Back then, academic freedom was severely constrained by religious dogma. Today, the ideological gatekeeping is no less restrictive, though now it is secular in nature.
The shift toward a singular ideological stance threatens the foundational mission of higher education. Just as medieval institutions imposed theological constraints on academic pursuits, today’s universities enforce ideological boundaries that stifle critical thinking and the pursuit of truth. In this climate, truth is no longer the product of open inquiry but is dictated by those who hold power, leaving little room for constructive debate. The once-vibrant marketplace of ideas has been reduced to a space where only approved viewpoints are allowed to thrive.
This environment fundamentally undermines the pursuit of truth. In spaces where debate is suppressed, critical thinking cannot flourish. Truth has become a function of power, and without the ability to challenge and question, we lose our capacity to scrutinize our own assumptions. Individuals are reduced to caricatures — superficial, unrefined, and lacking depth. Instead of striving to uncover truth, as in propaganda films from authoritarian regimes, the academy employs aggressive tactics to mask its own distance from it.
The impact on students is profound. Many now self-censor, fearing the consequences of expressing views that might place them outside the accepted narrative. They’ve learned that challenging dominant viewpoints can lead to social exclusion or academic penalties. Rather than being trained in critical thinking, students are being conditioned to conform intellectually.
Universities now stand at a crossroads. They can continue down this path, fostering a culture of ideological uniformity and suppressing free exchange. Or, they can return to their foundational principles as places where ideas are tested, debated, and refined. True pluralism goes beyond superficial diversity; it requires an environment where conflicting viewpoints can coexist and engage. The most crucial pluralism to champion is not one of appearances, but one of ideas.
Once, scholars would say, “Here are my arguments. What are yours?” Today, the spirit of intellectual inquiry is under siege. The new mantra is, “Here are my arguments, and if you dare to disagree, we will remove you — and still call ourselves pluralists.”
We are in a state of emergency. Universities must go beyond mere statements of commitment to free speech, such as the Chicago Principles, and take active measures to restore ideological balance. The situation is so dire that it now demands affirmative action, not just to protect academic freedom, but to actively recruit conservative voices that have been systematically excluded.
We typically think of affirmative action in terms of race or gender, with the aim of fostering a diversity of perspectives, particularly those that have been marginalized or excluded. If admission to academic institutions were solely based on academic excellence, conservatives would have no trouble being admitted and advancing. However, in recent years, not only has excellence ceased to be the sole criterion, but conservatives have also become singled out. Paradoxically, despite their academic achievements, they are often excluded because of their views. Thus, to truly ensure a diversity of perspectives within academia, we must cultivate ideological diversity, not just gender or racial diversity. Affirmative action should extend to protecting and representing conservative views, adapting the existing mechanisms to include voices that are currently marginalized and silenced.
Mitchell Langbert and Sean Stevens highlight the severe ideological imbalance among faculty at major universities, particularly within the social sciences. Their study found that the overall ratio of registered Democrats to Republicans among faculty members is 8.5:1. In specific fields, this disparity becomes even more extreme. In sociology, the ratio is 27:1 in favor of Democrats, and in anthropology, it skyrockets to 42.2:1.
This troubling trend is not limited to specific fields; it also extends across some of the most prestigious universities. Brown University has a ratio of 21.3:1, indicating a significant imbalance, while Columbia’s ratio of 24.5:1 shows a slightly higher dominance of liberal perspectives. Yale’s ratio reaches 31.3:1, reflecting an even greater skew toward one political ideology. Princeton University presents a more serious case with a ratio of 40:1, demonstrating a pronounced lack of conservative viewpoints. At the top of the scale is Harvard, where the ratio reaches a staggering 88:1, highlighting an overwhelming and nearly complete absence of ideological balance.
These figures underscore the urgency of adopting corrective measures to foster a more balanced and intellectually diverse academic environment. The marketplace of ideas must remain vibrant and contested. Otherwise, the very essence of learning is lost.
My experience of persecution is not a personal problem. It is a symptom of a much more severe issue. I was persecuted because I am part of a conservative viewpoint, which is one that is systematically excluded from the academic discourse.
The time has come to reclaim the true mission of the university. We must ensure our academic spaces remain open to all voices, not just those that comfortably fit the prevailing narrative. Intellectual freedom is not just an academic ideal — it’s the bedrock of a vibrant society. It must be defended, even when inconvenient, because only then can we keep the pursuit of knowledge alive.
Ronen Shoval taught and conducted research at Princeton University during the 2022-23 academic year. His latest book, “Holiness and Society: A Socio-Political Exploration of the Mosaic Tradition,” was published by Routledge, 2024.
The post I Was Shunned at Princeton for Being a Zionist; We Must Actively Ensure Academic Diversity Now first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Irish School Textbooks Disparage Judaism, Defame Israel, Watchdog Finds
Demonstrators wearing masks depicting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Democratic presidential nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris hold signs, in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, in Dublin, Ireland on Oct. 7, 2024. Photo: Clodagh Kilcoyne via Reuters Connect
School textbooks in Ireland foster antisemitic hatred, downplaying the horrors of the Holocaust and portraying Israel as the obstructive party in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a new report.
The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (Impact-se), an Israeli education watchdog group, on Monday released the report, titled “European Textbooks: Ireland Review,” which revealed negative stereotypes and distortions of Israel, Judaism, and Jewish history.
The findings were unveiled amid a surge in anti-Israel animus in Ireland and even the promotion of antisemitic conspiracies by government officials. Against this backdrop, Impact-se found that Irish textbooks authors have stuffed their works with contextt likely to further fuel such an environment.
In one example cited by the report, a history textbook for eleventh graders describes Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi concentration camp in Poland where 1 million Jews were murdered during World War II, as a “prisoner of war camp” rather than an “extermination,” “concentration,” or “death camp.” Such a description “minimizes the unique and horrific nature of the Holocaust and the systematic extermination carried out there,” according to Impact-se.
In other textbooks — including Inspire – Wisdom of the World, a religious studies book distributed to students as young as 12 years old — Judaism is described as a war mongering religion which “believes that violence and war are sometimes necessary to promote justice.” Christianity and Islam are more favorably judged as aiming for “peace and justice” and, in the latter, resorting to war only in “self-defense, to defend Islam but not to spread Islam and to protect people who are oppressed.”
The same book goes on to negate the charitable endeavors in which Jewish civil society organizations engage to ease the plight of the marginalized and poor, omitting them entirely from a section discussing efforts to combat homelessness.
“In this chapter, we are going to look at how some Christians and Muslims have responded to this issue by putting their faith into action. We are also going to look at how some non-religious people and organizations respond to homelessness,” Inspire says before continuing to show a series of graphics which present Christians, Muslims, and secular organizations as altruistic and conscientious.
Irish curricula is perhaps most aggressive in discussing Israel and the Palestinians, according to Impact-se. Citing Inspire again, the report revealed that the textbook’s authors chose to propagate the misleading claim that Jesus Christ lived in “Palestine,” a piece of disinformation that has been trafficked by anti-Zionist activists both to diminish Jesus’ Jewish heritage and deny the existence of a Jewish state in antiquity.
“Historical references to Jesus living in ‘Palestine’ without appropriate context can contribute to narratives that challenge Israel’s legitimacy and undermine the Jewish historical connection to the land,” wrote Impact-se, which also noted that a textbook for younger children on the story of Jesus included a comic strip with the words, “Some people did not like Jesus.” The people shown in the comic are visibly Jewish, wearing religious clothing such as a kippah.
“This portrayal aligns with antisemitic stereotypes that have wrongly blamed Jews collectively for the death of Jesus,” the report stated.
Meanwhile, Impact-se noted that Inspire uses the New Testament parable of the Good Samaritan to accuse Jews of lacking concern for non-Jews and of oppressing Palestinians for believing that God favors Jews above other groups — baseless claims which the text explicitly applies to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Having attacked Israel with theological arguments, it moves to the realm of the secular, framing the losses of territory from what would have been a Palestinian state under United Nations Resolution 181 had not Palestinian Arabs — and their allies — launched a series of failed wars to expel Jews from the region as the “Shrinking of Palestine.”
“Similarly, the textbook oversimplifies the issue of Palestinian refugees, neglecting to clarify that the 5 million UN-recognized refugees are mainly descendants of the original refugees, rather than individuals who directly fled their homes,” Impact-se wrote in response to Inspire World‘s portrayal of the historical record. “This crucial distinction overlooks the fact that this is the only case in international law where refugee status is inherited through generations. As a result, the refugee crisis is portrayed as ongoing and substantial, while under normal international law, most of these 5 million people would not be considered refugees.”
In a press release accompanying the report, Impact-se chief executive officer Marcus Sheff called on Irish lawmakers to be an antidote to the poisons of antisemitic bias and blood libel.
“Textbooks are a window into what societies will look like in years to come. As such, Irish textbooks are deeply troubling,” Sheff said. “The Holocaust is glossed over and at times minimized, in an age where the butchering of Jews is fresh in the memory. The Irish curriculum views Jews and Judaism as a lesser part of Ireland’s social fabric, while Israel is exclusively portrayed as antagonistic. In this context, the worrying growing hostility that Jews and Israelis in Ireland are experiencing, should come as no surprise. If Ireland’s leaders wish to reverse this trend, then they must place the country’s curriculum high on their agenda.”
The report came out almost a month after an Irish official, Dublin City Councilor Punam Rane, claimed during a council meeting that Jews and Israel control the US economy, arguing that is why Washington, DC does not oppose Israel’s war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
Ireland has been among the most vocal critics of Israel since Oct. 7 of last year, when Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded the Jewish state from neighboring Gaza. The terrorists murdered 1,200 people, wounded thousands more, and abducted over 250 hostages in their rampage, the deadliest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign in Hamas-ruled Gaza aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling the terrorist group’s military and governing capabilities.
Antisemitism in Ireland has become “blatant and obvious” in the wake of the Hamas onslaught, according to Alan Shatter, a former member of parliament who served in the Irish cabinet between 2011 and 2014 as Minister for Justice, Equality and Defense.
Shatter told The Algemeiner in an interview earlier this year that Ireland has “evolved into the most hostile state towards Israel in the entire EU.”
Ireland officially recognized a Palestinian state in May, prompting outrage in Israel, which described the move as a “reward for terrorism.”
Israel’s Ambassador in Dublin Dana Erlich said at the time that Ireland was “not an honest broker” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Last week, Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris called on the European Union to “review its trade relations” with Israel, after the Israeli parliament passed a law banning the activities in the country of UNRWA, the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, due to its ties to Hamas.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Irish School Textbooks Disparage Judaism, Defame Israel, Watchdog Finds first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Vandals Strike Jewish Fraternity AEPi House at Temple University in Philadelphia
One of two possible suspects who twice vandalized the off-campus house of Alpha Epsilon Pi. Photo: Screenshot/Temple University Police
Anti-Jewish hate reared its head at Temple University in Philadelphia over the weekend, with a spree of vandalisms at the off-campus dwelling of the predominantly Jewish Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) fraternity.
“Vandalism and harassment are not viable forms of protest,” university president John Fry said in a statement on Monday. “Criminal behavior will not be tolerated, and we cannot allow it to be normalized on our campuses or within our community.”
He continued, “As law enforcement pursues its criminal investigation, the university will also launch its own thorough investigation. Any student found to be involved will face strict disciplinary action under the Student Conduct Code, up to and including expulsion …While incidents like this are deeply unsettling, they will not impact the collective resolve of our community to support Jewish life at Temple University and to respond decisively to antisemitism.”
On Monday, Temple University police released a series of images of the suspected culprits, who appear to be college-age men. One of them concealed his identity, while the other did not.
The first case occurred on Friday and involved graffiti painted on the AEPi residence, although Temple’s Department of Public Safety (DPS) did not elaborate on what was spray painted. Then on Sunday, an individual wrote “antisemitic graffiti” on the residence, according to DPS.
The phrase “Israel [equals] genocide” was reportedly written on the building one of the days.
Commenting on the two incidents of vandalism, the Philadelphia office of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said that anti-Zionist hate crimes do not advance the Palestinian cause.
“This is simply harassment of Jews,” the group said. “Thank you to President John Fry for condemning this criminal activity. We hope the investigation is quick and whoever responsible is held accountable.”
The AEPi fraternity has been targeted in four different acts of vandalism or trespassing since early May, The Temple News reported.
The latest vandalizing of the AEPi house was not the first of its kind on US college campuses this semester. Last month, a sukkah was vandalized at Simmons University, located in Boston, Massachusetts. The culprits graffitied “Gaza liberation sukkah” on the structure, which was built for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
“Simmons condemns this antisemitic vandalism of a Jewish religious symbol on our campus. This unacceptable act is being actively investigated as a potential hate crime,” university president Lynn Perry Wooten said in a statement following the incident. “The safety and well-being of our community is our top priority. Speech and behavior that is threatening, harassing, or intimidating are not protected forms of expression and will not be tolerated.”
As The Algemeiner has previously reported, anti-Israel activity on college campuses has reached crisis levels in the year since Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. According to a recent report by the ADL, higher education saw a “staggering” 477 percent increase in anti-Zionist activity involving assault, vandalism, and other phenomena during the 2023-2024 academic school year.
The report added that 10 campuses accounted for 16 percent of all incidents tracked by ADL researchers, with Columbia University and the University of Michigan combining for 90 anti-Israel incidents — 52 and 38 respectively. Harvard University, the University of California—Los Angeles, Rutgers University New Brunswick, Stanford University, Cornell University, and others filled out the rest of the top 10. Violence, the report said, was most common at universities in the state of California, where anti-Zionist activists punched a Jewish student for filming him at a protest.
“The antisemitic, anti-Zionist vitriol we’ve witnessed on campus is unlike anything we’ve seen in the past,” ADL chief executive officer Jonathan Greenblatt said in September, after the report’s release. “The anti-Israel movement’s relentless harassment, vandalism, intimidation, and violent physical assaults go way beyond the peaceful voicing of a political opinion. Administrators and faculty need to do much better this year to ensure a safe and truly inclusive environment for all students, regardless of religion, nationality, or political views, and they need to start now.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Israeli PM Netanyahu Fires Defense Minister Gallant: ‘Trust Has Been Broken’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during a press conference in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv , Israel, Oct. 28, 2023. Photo: Abir Sultan/Pool via REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday, citing a lack of trust as Israel continued its military operations against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Unfortunately, over the past months, the trust between me and the minister of defense has been broken,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “There were significant gaps regarding the management of the [military] campaign, and these gaps were accompanied by statements and actions that contradicted the decisions of the government.”
In a letter reported by Israel’s Channel 12, Netanyahu told Gallant that his dismissal would be effective 48 hours after delivery of the note. “I would like to thank you for your work as defense minister,” the premier wrote.
Netanyahu appointed Foreign Minister Israel Katz to succeed Gallant as defense minister, and Gideon Saar will become the new foreign minister.
The government shakeup came amid not only Israel’s ongoing military campaigns against Hamas and Hezbollah but also the looming threat of another direct attack from the Islamist terror groups’ chief backer, Iran.
Last Sunday, Gallant said in remarks to a memorial ceremony in Jerusalem that Iran was no longer able to effectively use its proxies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israel.
The post Israeli PM Netanyahu Fires Defense Minister Gallant: ‘Trust Has Been Broken’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.