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Northwestern University Still Teems With Antisemitism, Parents and Students Say
Pro-Hamas protesters at the Deering Meadow section of Northwestern University’s campus in Evanston, Illinois, United States, on April 25, 2024. Photo: Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect.
Antisemitism remains palpable and severe at Northwestern University over one year after President Michael Schill signed the “Deering Meadow Agreement” which granted pro-Hamas demonstrators a windfall of concessions they had demanded in exchange for ending an unauthorized encampment, parents and students told The Algemeiner in a series of interviews.
The 2023-2024 academic year was unlike any seen in the history of American higher education since the 1960s. Following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, colleges across the US erupted with effusions of antisemitic activity, which included calling for the destruction of Israel, cheering Hamas’s sexual assaulting of women as an instrument of war, and several incidents of assault and harassment targeting Jews on campus.
This held true at Northwestern University, where the Jewish experience was remade by the forces of anti-Zionism and the administrators who allegedly yielded to it. On April 25, 2024, the Northwestern Divestment Coalition (NDC) — a group of pro-Hamas activists linked to National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) — commandeered the Deering Meadow section of campus and established what they called the “Northwester Liberated Zone.” For five days, over 1,000 students, professors, and non-Northwestern-affiliated persons fulminated against the world’s lone Jewish state.
The encampment dwellers argued that Israel is committing a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza as retaliation for the Oct. 7 attacks while questioning the severity of Hamas’s atrocities — or denying them altogether. Northwestern University, they added, is complicit for holding investments in armaments and aerospace manufacturers which do business with Israel, a fact which they said necessitated that the school “boycott” and “divest” from the Jewish state.
“There were signs everywhere,” Lisa Fields, who was on campus at the time and founded the Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern (CAAN), told The Algemeiner. Fields is the parent of a Northwestern student whose emotional phone call during the middle of the demonstration prompted her to fly from her home in New York City to the university’s campus in Evanston, Illinois. What she saw there disturbed her.
“There was a Hitler sign and another depicting Schill with horns, just to mention some of the antisemitic tropes on display there,” Fields recounted. “The protesters were loud, aggressive, and banging on things. It was impossible to walk through the campus. None of the student attending class could focus because you could hear everything inside the classrooms.”
Northwestern University police attempted to uproot the protesters, who had pitched tents on the Deering Meadow, after Schill placed an “interim addendum” in the code of conduct which proscribed setting up the temporary shelters on school property. They were unsuccessful, however, as the protesters, faculty included, formed a “human blockade” to block their advance into the space. An impasse followed for the next four days in which NDC raised $12,000 and students staged “artistic performances,” delivered speeches, and appealed to the public for more money and support.
Meanwhile, Schill and a group of NDC delegates were busy hammering out a settlement which would end the demonstration and restore a semblance of normalcy to campus. By the morning of April 29, they reached what would infamously be remembered as the “Deering Meadow Agreement” — a first of its kind accord which became a model for 42 other schools who emulated it. It committed Northwestern University to establishing a scholarship for Palestinian undergraduates, contacting potential employers of students who caused recent campus disruptions to insist on their being hired, hiring two Palestinian professors, and creating a segregated dormitory hall to be occupied exclusively by Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) and Muslim students. The university — after days of hearing the activists shout phrases such as “Kill the Jews!” — also agreed to form a new investment committee in which anti-Zionists students and faculty wield an outsized voice.
Not a year later, Northwestern claimed to have turned a corner. On March 31, amid US President Donald Trump’s confiscations of federal funds from higher education institutions deemed soft on antisemitism or excessively “woke,” the university issued a progress report containing a checklist of policies it said were enacted in response to Schill being upbraided by members of Congress over his handling of the Deering Meadow crisis.
Among other things, the university said that it had adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, a reference tool which aids officials in determining what constitutes antisemitism, and began holding “mandatory antisemitism training” sessions which “all students, faculty, and staff” must attend. The so-called progress report’s most controversial assertion boasted that antisemitic incidents on the campus have fallen by 88 percent.
Geri Cohen, another Northwestern parent and member of CAAN, had heard it all before in a meeting with Schill that was held during move-in weekend 2024, the first time Cohen would drop off her daughter, who was then an incoming freshmen, at the university. During the meeting, she and other parents, many of whom are also CAAN members, were regaled with speeches proclaiming Northwestern’s regard for its Jewish community and its foolproof plans to prevent another surge of pro-Hamas activity.
According to Cohen, however, Schill was most comfortable engaging with parents when they refrained from asking tough questions. Cohen did not, and her inquiries perturbed him, as they proceeded from the premise that the Deering Meadow Agreement canceled out any policies the university might enact to plausibly claim that it is combating antisemitism.
“He is a profound legal mind, so he knew exactly what I was asking, and he was defensive about the line of questioning,” Cohen told The Algemeiner. “He just pointed to the mandatory antisemitism training, offering a veneer of a reasonable explanation which fell short of saying anything real. I pushed him a little bit, asking follow up questions when he insisted that there is no issue, but he deftly avoided being cornered.”
Schill’s equivocations, Cohen said, primed her for news that was revealed earlier this month by the Washington Free Beacon. Per the Deering Meadow Agreement, Northwestern University hired at least one Palestinian professor, Mkhaimar Abusada — but, as reported by the Free Beacon, Abusada holds ties to both Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) through his memberships in two groups which cooperate with the US-designated terrorist organizations and award their fighters leadership positions.
“At the end of the day, we all knew that they made the deal and that they were hiring these professors,” Cohen said, commenting on the report. “I’m not surprised whatsoever about who they hire, what they believe, who funds them, what other organizations to which they are linked — all of that was already in my head when I decided to let my daughter make her own decision about where she was going to go in this world.”
Fields concurred.
“The problems at Northwestern are deep. Deep and institutional,” she said. “And what makes it so interesting a case study in campus antisemitism is that it isn’t a calm campus like Vanderbilt, but it also did not see the fires which raged at Columbia, Harvard, and UCLA. But what happened there was unique and worse because of the precedent that was set and the lesson Northwestern taught the community when it decided to surrender to the radical people who took over the Deering Meadow everything they wanted. And Schill would do it again. He is proud of that deal.”
Northwestern University students also tell a story that is at odds with what the institution believes about itself.
“The university has done a great job covering up the actions of its students, and that is my perspective as a Christian and a student leader. I personally have not seen a reduction in antisemitic incidents,” pre-law student Jeanine Yuen told The Algemeiner. “One example I can think of is a Jewish student who was punished for peacefully counter-protesting a pro-Palestinian walkout and picket on the anniversary of Oct. 7. The university said he violated time and place policies, but none of the pro-Palestinian protesters who did so too were punished, and the university blamed the inconsistency on its being unable to identify the protesters, who were masked.”
Additionally, according to a new Spring Campus Poll conducted by The Daily Northwestern, the school’s official campus newspaper, 58 percent of Jewish students reported being subjected to antisemitism or knowing someone who has. An even higher 63.1 percent said antisemitism remains a “somewhat or very serious problem.” Only weeks earlier, during the Jewish holiday of Passover, someone graffitied Kregse Hall and University Hall with hateful speech calling for “Death to Israel” and an “Intifada,” alluding to two prolonged periods of Palestinian terrorism during which hundreds of Israeli Jews were murdered. The vandals also spray-painted an inverted triangle, a symbol used to express support for the terrorist group Hamas and its atrocities.
In April, the Trump administration expressed its skepticism of a quick turnaround at Northwestern by impounding $790 million of its federal funds. As of the publication of this article, they have not been given back.
“We have received 98 stop-word orders, mostly for Department of Defense-funded research projects, in addition to 51 grant terminations that were mostly received prior to the news of the funding freeze. In addition, we have not received payments for National Institutes of Health grants since March. These now appear to be frozen,” Schill said in a May 1 statement addressing the government’s funding cuts. “This is deeply troubling, and we are working in many ways to advocate on behalf of the university and to resolve the situation.”
Northwestern University did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Northwestern University Still Teems With Antisemitism, Parents and Students Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Pod Save America’ Hosts Call on Democrats to Cut All US Military Aid to Israel, No Longer Accept AIPAC Money
Pod Save America hosts on tour. Photo: Screenshot
The hosts of the influential progressive podcast “Pod Save America” — all one-time aides to former US President Barack Obama — on Tuesday called on the future Democratic presidential nominee to cut all funding and military ties with Israel, urging party leaders to adopt a “total mindset change” in their relationship with the Jewish state.
The trio of hosts — Tommy Vietor, Jon Lovett, and Jon Favreau — also said that Democrats should no longer accept money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), send Israel military aid, or block anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations. The Obama administration alumni lambasted Israel for deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the Gaza strip and pursuing military action in Lebanon, Iran, and Syria.
There has to be a total mindset change in the Democratic party. When the war ends, we are not going back to the pre-October 7 status quo. pic.twitter.com/Bow5zmYS2v
— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) July 29, 2025
“The things I want to see Democrats at least calling for is cutting off military assistance to Israel,” Vietor said. “I would like to see talk about sanctioning Israeli government officials that use genocidal rhetoric or talk about ethnic cleansing openly. We should support a ceasefire resolution at the UN.”
“When the war ends, we are not going back to the pre-Oct. 7 status quo,” he added, referring to the period before the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
Vietor argued that the Democratic Party should not develop close ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, decrying former US President Joe Biden’s decision to maintain a tight bond with the Israeli premier. He accused Netanyahu of continuing the war in Gaza for political purposes and said that he attacks Iran, Syria, and Lebanon “when he wants to.”
In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, Hezbollah, a Lebanese terrorist organization, pummeled northern Israel almost daily with barrages of missiles. The Lebanese Islamist movement fired over 10,000 projectiles at Israel in 2024. About 70,000 Israelis were forced to evacuate their homes in northern Israel and flee to other parts of the country as a result. Israel responded with a blistering campaign targeting key command centers, military leaders, and weapons depots crippling Hezbollah’s military infrastructure.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Iran, which the US intelligence community has for years identified as the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism.
“Especially if we are going to head into a primary, like, table stakes is going to be no more military aid for Israel,” Lovett added.
The ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has divided the American political left. Polling suggests that commanding majorities of liberals now express greater empathy for Palestinians than Israelis, representing a massive shift from previous years.
Seemingly in response to a shifting sentiment among liberal voters, the “Pod Save America” hosts have adopted a more adversarial posture against Israel in recent months.
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A Podcast Had Guests Calling on People to ‘Take Down’ and ‘Kill’ Jews — and Nothing Happened
Myron Gaines. Photo: promotional screenshot.
Is a podcast guest in America permitted to call for the killing of Jews?
As far as I know, that’s incitement.
A random antisemitic female guest appeared on the Fresh and Fit Podcast with host Myron Gaines, whose real name is Amrou Fudl. The show has more than 1.5 million subscribers.
Gaines pretends to be an intellect, and he is not a very good actor. He is a coward and a fool.
Put aside that Gaines is the author of a book called, Why Women Deserve Less.
Gaines asked his guests: “What do you guys think about Hitler?”
Here’s how The Forward describes the now-deleted video:
The deleted video, from a segment titled “After Hours w/Girls,” included this exchange.
“What if the Jewish did something to the Germans that made them act a certain way, but nobody wants to talk about it? Like the Jews don’t want to take accountability,” said a woman on the six-person podcast panel, identified by Canary Mission as a recent high school grad named Suzette.
“They was up to something, so the Germans wanted to take them out. Like, it had to be something,” she continued.
“They started it,” another woman chimed in.
“How do we take them down?” co-host Walter Weekes asked.
“We gotta kill the motherf—ers,” responded a second woman, identified by Canary Mission as Kadriyanna James.
A clip of the guest calling on people to “kill the motherf—ers” can be found here.
We also hear someone say Jews are “selfish.”
Sadly, many foolish people will think this is great content — and many will agree with it.
A few years ago, there would have been repercussions for a host having this kind of show. Now, there will be none.
What started with Kanye West and continued with Candace Owens spewing conspiracy theories has now flowed into new territory. Antisemitism is no longer simply normalized; it is welcomed to get clicks, and is seen as cool.
It is true that podcast hosts can have wild opinions, but this is simply beyond the pale. Gaines had to know where this was going.
A guest goes on to say “the Jews did something” — but of course she doesn’t say what they did, because she knows she will get attention just by spewing hate against Jews.
Sadly, many of the viewers might think she is correct, simply because the podcast has millions of listeners — many of whom are uninformed.
A male guest says, “How do we take them down?” This guy is asking how to “take down” the Jews.
Someone else said “kill the mother-f-ers.”
How does the host not speak out against that? No other group in America has a show saying that they should be killed — only Jews, in 2025.
America is built on free speech, but you cannot call for killing people.
Just when I thought things could not get lower, they do. And of the other guests who remained silent, almost nobody would sit quietly as someone called for the killing of any other minority group in America.
Ironically, the female guest, who is Black, was defending a man who referred to Black people as inferior and said they were infecting the white race. Perhaps she should pick up a copy of Mein Kampf before rationalizing Hitler’s actions.
Still, how many people who watch this podcast will think this idiotic guest is correct?
Freedom of speech doesn’t extend to saying people should be killed. But of course the government won’t act — because Jews are the target.
Gaines will likely face few repercussions — who knows, it could even help his career. It’s utterly disgusting and disgraceful.
The author is a writer based in New York.
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According to the CIA, the Gaza Population *Grew* in 2024
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
Twenty five nations signed a declaration this week, condemning Israel’s war of self defense in Gaza — while staying utterly silent on the Syrian government’s massacre of its ethnic minorities and about a dozen other global tragedies.
I’ve made this point before, but it’s worth saying again: This may be the first “genocide” in history in which the population grew larger.
The Palestinian population in Gaza grew significantly since October 7, 2023, according to data from the CIA World Factbook.
This population growth includes the time period of Israel’s defensive war against the Hamas terror organization, which terror apologists (falsely) call a “genocide.”
Published by America’s Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA World Factbook shows a population in Gaza over the past three years of: 2022: 1,997,328; 2023: 2,098,389; and 2024: 2,141,643. This indicates a growth rate in Gaza over the past year of 2.06%, which is more than double the US growth rate during the same period, at only 0.98%.
How is it possible that Gaza’s population grew so much over that year?
Quite simply because Israel has been so incredibly cautious in its defensive military campaign against Hamas, and has provided such an overwhelming amount of humanitarian aid, that the number of people who died in Gaza was actually less than the number of new babies born
These numbers stand in stark contrast to misleading claims of “mass starvation” and “genocide,” all of which are not only untrue, but make no logical sense given the uncontested reality on the ground
Q&A:
Here are some arguments that (believe it or not) I have actually received on this topic, along with the accompanying answers, based in actual reality.
Argument: These figures are just Israeli propaganda.
Reality: The data on Gaza’s massive population growth comes from the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America.
Argument: The CIA figures are just projections and therefore not accurate.
Reality: This assertion is based on an unsupported claim from an agenda driven article on the Polifact website. (Instead of evidence, Polifact quoted a conjecture by an employee of the US Census Bureau, who does not work for the CIA or have actual knowledge of CIA methodology.) Furthermore, the Polifact article addressed early CIA figures from December 2024, whereas our article is based on the updated CIA figures from May 7, 2025.
Argument: The vast majority of casualties in Gaza are women and children.
Reality: No. Hamas used to claim that most casualties were women and children, and a number of international bodies continue to repeat that claim without independent investigation, even though it is now supported by neither Israeli intelligence nor even by Hamas’ own, revised figures.
As a rule, Hamas never distinguishes between civilians and combatants. Hamas’s “Gaza Ministry of Health” frequently makes dramatic press announcements and then later revises its figures retroactively, often removing thousands of names, or changing the relevant demographic information. One manual count of Hamas’ figures indicates that most of Gaza’s casualties were actually men of military age.
Argument: More than 50,000 people died in Gaza, making it one of the most deadly conflicts in history.
Reality: The Hamas terror organization, which is notoriously unreliable, claims a figure around that scale. Even if accurate, that number is far less than other conflicts in the region, such as Syria (over 650,000), Yemen (over 230,0000), and Afghanistan (over 270,000). In fact, the number of casualties in Gaza is so low that it is less than Gaza’s birth rate during the same period. Indeed, the civilian to combatant casualty ratio in Gaza is the among the lowest in human history for a conflict of this type, nine times less than the UN published global average, and experts note that Israel has set an entirely new standard for the level of care that is possible in urban warfare.
Argument: The death toll in Gaza is similar to the Holocaust on a per capita basis.
Answer: No. Throughout the six years between 1939 and 1945 the Jewish population of Europe decreased by over 60% and now, nearly a century later, the world Jewish population still has not fully recovered. (The global Jewish population on the eve of the Holocaust in 1939 stood at 16.9 million, versus today, at only 15.8 million.) By contrast, the Palestinian population in Gaza is growing.
Argument: The attacks of October 7 were the equivalent to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, and an example of “resistance” which is permitted under international law.
Answer: No. Though we have written this numerous times in the past, it bears repeating: October 7, 2023, saw the largest murder of Jews since the Holocaust, as the Hamas terror organization, along with Palestinian civilians and UN staff, invaded Israel, killed over 1,200 people in approximately six hours, and took 251 hostage, all while committing mass torture, beheadings, and mass rape.
The pace of murder in that six hour period is hard to comprehend: had Hamas continued to kill at that rate (as it had intended), then by today, the death toll in Israel would would have reached over 3.1 million — an even faster pace of killing than that achieved by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
An estimated 50 Israeli hostages remain in captivity in Gaza, with approximately 20 of them believed to still be alive, enduring starvation and torture.
Nothing in international law permits such acts by any person or organization, under any circumstances, for any reason. The only thing comparable to the Holocaust in Gaza is the attempt by Hamas and other terror organizations to annihilate the Jewish people from the Earth, along with their astonishing capacity to simultaneously lie about it to the world.
Daniel Pomerantz is the CEO of RealityCheck, an organization dedicated to deepening public conversation through robust research studies and public speaking.