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ADL Launches Partnership to Combat Antisemitism in Higher Education
ADL chief executive officer and Jewish Graduate Organization chief executive officer Dave Sorani at ADL’s NYC headquarters on December 17, 2024. Photo: Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is partnering with the Jewish Graduate Organization (JGO) to fight antisemitism in post-undergraduate education, according to a press release issued on Wednesday.
The initiative will see the ADL share “resources, specialized training for staff,” and “educational opportunities” with JGO, which was founded in 2011 with the aim of supporting Jewish students pursuing advanced degrees. Such students have been under strain since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel set off an explosion of antisemitism on college campuses across the country, as they have been forced to manage their studies in hostile environments in which antisemitic discrimination and harassment is now normalized.
“Students are facing horrific levels of antisemitic harassment on campus, so this partnership could not come at a more important moment for Jewish students and those moving into the workforce,” ADL chief executive officer Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “We are seeing a rise in antisemitism on grad school campuses across the country, and recognize the unique work that GO is doing to support Jewish grad students during these challenging times.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, antisemitism in graduate schools around the country has led to high profile lawsuits and civil rights complaints.
In August, the Graduate Student Union (GSU) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) settled a discrimination lawsuit in which its Jewish members accused union officials of coercing them into paying union dues, which they had refused to do after it endorsed the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. According to court documents, GSU bosses browbeat the students, telling them, presumptuously, that “no principles, teachings, or tenets of Judaism prohibit membership in or the payment of dues or fees to a labor union.” With the settlement of their case, they were released from an obligation which they said violated their core beliefs and freedom of association.
Harvard University is also being sued for allegedly ignoring the antisemitic conduct of a Harvard Kennedy School professor, Marshall Ganz, who pelted Israeli students with opprobrium and rejected their assignments when they described Israeli democracy positively. At one point, Ganz allegedly forced the Israeli students to attend “a class exercise on Palestinian solidarity” and the taking of a class photograph in which their classmates and teaching fellows “wore ‘keffiyehs’ as a symbol of Palestinian support.”
During an investigation of the incidents, which Harvard delegated to a third party firm, Ganz admitted that he believed “that the students’ description of Israel as a Jewish democracy … was similar to ‘talking about a white supremacist state.’” The firm went on to determine that Ganz “denigrated” the Israeli students and fostered “a hostile learning environment,” conclusions which Harvard accepted but never acted on.
Other egregious incidents of graduate school antisemitism occurred long before Oct. 7. In 2021, Jewish graduate students of City University of New York-Brooklyn College’s Mental Health Counseling program alleged in a civil rights complaint that they were repeatedly pressured into saying that Jews are white and should thus be excluded from discussions about social justice. The badgering of Jewish students, they said, was so severe that one student said in a WhatsApp group chat that she wanted to “strangle” a Jewish classmate.
These are kinds of experiences for which Jewish students must be prepared, JGO chief executive officer Rabbi Dave Sorani said in Wednesday’s press release.
“We recognize the unique challenges and opportunities that Jewish graduate students face,” JGO chief executive officer Rabbi Dave Sorani said in Wednesday’s press release. “Through this collaboration, we will work with the ADL to provide critical resources and programming to equip Jewish students with the tools they need to navigate and confront antisemitism effectively, stand up for themselves, and advocate for the broader Jewish community.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ADL Launches Partnership to Combat Antisemitism in Higher Education first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.