The end of the summer was dominated by allegations of “genocide” and “famine” thrown against Israel and its supporters. These collapse under even causal examination, but have been coupled with relentless campaigns, particularly on the far right, to legitimize antisemitism. Similarly, the impact of ill-conceived European recognition of a Palestinian state predictably backfired, but further imperiled Israel’s position and that of individual Jews.

Attacks against individual Jews and Jewish institutions have become so numerous that only a sample may be listed here. A few notable examples include:

• The beating of a visibly Jewish man in Montreal in front of his children. One individual was arrested;
• Pro-Hamas protestors appeared outside the home of Rev. Johnnie Moore, head of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Moore’s home was vandalized and he reported death threats;
• In Atlanta a couple confronted the father of Sgt. Elisheva Rose Ida Lubin, who was stabbed to death by a terrorist in Jerusalem in 2023, calling him a “kike” and saying she deserved to die;
• An anti-Israel protest and encampment was held outside the headquarters of Microsoft, ostensibly by employees. After the protest was dispersed and resulting arrests, it was revealed that most were not employees. Protestors later occupied the president’s office and demanded the company cut ties with Israel. Two employees were fired;
• In St. Louis, vehicles belonging to a local resident who was a veteran of the Israeli military were burned and “death to the IDF” was painted on the street;

In a major development, Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador after investigations revealed that the country had orchestrated and financed a series of antisemitic attacks including the firebombing of a synagogue in 2024. The Australian government has been under pressure from the Jewish community to address increasingly frequent attacks, but has also become increasingly hostile towards Israel.

The revelation of Iranian involvement again raises the question of state sponsorship of antisemitic attacks globally. Links have also now been documented between Hamas representatives in Italy and far left parties, which have been instrumental in organizing anti-Israel protests.

More evidence also continues to accumulate in the US that many local protestors are being paid, including by the Chinese Communist Party backed People’s Forum.

The reality that pro-Hamas protests are not grassroots manifestations but being staged as part of influence operations aimed at American politics has not yet been appreciated by the public, media, or law enforcement. But the reality puts the 2024 FBI hate crime statistics — which show Jews remain the most targeted religious group — into a new light.

Finally, the horrific attack on a Catholic school by a transgender individual, Robert (aka Robin) Westman, which killed two children, had clear anti-Israel and antisemitic connections.

On the university front, the Trump administration continues to pressure colleges and universities, forcing monumental realignments in many areas including finances. The ostensible reason is the treatment of Jewish students, but the real focus appears to be eliminating discriminatory DEI programs in admissions and hiring, and to reduce the number of foreign students.

The State Department announced that it had revoked 6,000 student visas for overstays and crimes including assault, burglary, and DUI. Of these, 200-300 were accused of support for terrorism. New regulations were also proposed to reduce student visa abuse, including overstays.

As part of their settlements with the US government, Columbia, Penn, and Brown agreed to pay fines to the government and to Jewish students and faculty, and to release data on race based admissions and hiring.

While universities and their supporters have decried financial settlements as “extortion,” these are similar to penalties levied against other types of corporations.

Reports continue to indicate that Cornell University and Harvard University are negotiating deals with the Federal government which would restore grants and ability to enroll foreign students in exchange for dismantling DEI and protections for Jewish students. In one threat to Harvard, the Trump administration announced it would investigate patents Harvard filed on the basis of Federally-funded research with an eye toward seizing them. Some analysts have claimed that the combination of new taxes, loss of research funding, and cuts to foreign enrollment could result in Harvard’s endowment shrinking up to 40%.

The Federal government also announced it was seeking a 1$ billion settlement with UCLA. A new report has shown that from 2021 to 2025, UCLA received some $4.3 billion Federal grants, which, among other things, directly supported its DEI initiatives and numerous anti-Israel faculty members.

Meanwhile, layoffs continue through the higher education industry including at wealthy institutions such as Stanford University. Pressure from the Trump administration and the basic need to preserve campus security, has also prompted more schools to crack down on pro-Hamas protestors. George Washington University and the University of Wisconsin announced they were suspending SJP chapters. The Iowa University placed a cease and desist order on its Palestinian Solidarity Committee chapter, and Adelphi University put its chapter on probation for a year. The University of Washington also announced it would file criminal charges against protestors who occupied a building and caused over $1 million in damages.

Faculty

As the semester begins, faculty members continue to find themselves caught between their institutions and the new political and economic realities being established by the Trump administration. A petition signed by 10% of the members of the Association of American Geographers called on the group to boycott Israel and to disclose any investments related to Israel. A special member meeting to vote on the resolution has been scheduled for October. A similar petition in the American Philosophical Association called on the group to condemn Israel and the “genocide unfolding in Palestine.”

The impact of both the small minority of anti-Israel faculty and the widespread naturalization of post-colonial and other intellectual frameworks was seen in a study of publicly available syllabi, showing that left-wing authors dominate assigned readings.

Texts that depict Israel as illegitimate predominate, as do texts that denigrate the West, both its history and traditional structures.

The sudden visibility of genocide scholars such as Omer Bartov and Dirk Moses condemning Israel for “genocide” by redefining the term also bears noting. While many fields and publication platforms have been slowly reconfigured to focus on Israel as a unique evil, the circumstances of the Gaza war have provided a perfect opportunity for otherwise obscure academics to leverage professional authority in mass markets.

Anti-Israel and anti-Jewish discrimination continues to be covered up by universities. In one case, the University of Oregon Law Review continues to refuse to address an incident where an article by an Israeli professor was rejected on the basis of her national origin, even as that explanation was put in writing. The faculty member responsible continues in her role.

In another example, an Israeli dance scholar is suing UC Berkeley after being denied a guest teaching position on the basis of pressure from graduate students and faculty. Yael Nativ’s complaints notes that the department head had revoked the promised job stating in note, “My dept cannot host you for a class next fall. Things are very hot right now and many of our grad students are angry. I would be putting the dept and you in a terrible position if you taught here.” While an internal investigation supported her discrimination claims, neither an apology or restored position ensued.

Finally, in an incident that shows the connection between DEI personnel and antisemitism, reports showed that Derron Borders, DEI director of the Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management, called Hamas acts of terror “resistance.”

Students returning to campus this Fall face a dramatically different social and political environment. Recent polls also suggest students routinely lie about their progressive beliefs in order to appease left-wing faculty and to survive socially. This may indicate that the public marginalization of extremist students and faculty could shift some campus environments away from overt hostility towards Israel and Jews, as well as Christians.

K-12

The Fall semester will likely see teachers unions and pro-Hamas activists digging in over “ethnic studies,” which characterize Israel as a uniquely evil “settler-colonialist” state and Jews as the ultimate examples of “white supremacy.” These now foundational concepts have also been given support by essays in the academic journal Educational Philosophy and Theory, in which among other things “Gaza” is equated with “Auschwitz.”

Over the summer, a variety of school districts and teachers unions have redoubled their efforts to target Israel and Jews. Examples include:

• Philadelphia public schools have partnered with CAIR, which among other things will offer workshops on “American Jews and Political Power: Myth or Reality;”
• Teachers in the UCLA K-12 Ethnic Studies Certificate Workshop used the book “Teaching Palestine,” aimed at elementary school students;
• “Teaching about Palestine” is a central pillar of education in Toronto from elementary schools onward as children are taught about the “nakba,” the “Israel Occupation Force,” and “genocide;”
• The 2025 ArabCon held in Dearborn (MI) sponsored by the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee featured presentations by leading BDS figures and a panel of K-12 educators that “explore how classrooms can remain spaces of courage, resistance, and transformation, including the right to teach about Palestine.”

As a response to growing antisemitism within New York City’s United Federation of Teachers, several dozen Jewish members held a protest outside the union’s headquarters. Protest leaders reported that more than 150 Jewish teachers have or will opt out of membership. They demanded the union adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, provide training on antisemitism to members, and retract the endorsement of Zohran Mamdani.

Toronto schools have been particular hotbeds of antisemitism, which has been defended by the school board’s adoption of “anti-Palestinian racism,” which formally enshrined the Palestinian narrative such as the “nakba” as unassailable — and deems challenges as racist. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario has passed a similar “anti-Palestinian racism” resolution.

The author is a contributor to SPME, where a completely different version of this article was published.