US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance arrive for a ceremony with the 2025 College Football Playoff National Champions Ohio State Buckeyes on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday, April 14, 2025. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect.

The Trump administration has impounded more than $2 billion in federal funding previously awarded to Harvard University over the institution’s refusal to agree to a wishlist of reforms that Republican lawmakers have long argued will make higher education more meritocratic and less welcoming to anti-Zionists and far-left extremists.

“The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government. It violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI [of the Civil Rights Act],” Harvard interim president Alan Garber said on Monday in a statement. “It threatens our values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge. No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”

The Trump administration imposed the $2.2 billion penalty on Harvard shorty after Garber’s statement became public, setting off what The Harvard Crimson said stands to be a “historic legal battle” which tests the conservative movement’s power to reform an elite higher education system that, it believes, is hollowing out American values of merit, patriotism, and civic responsibility.

While the immediate cause of the administration’s dispute with Harvard is the explosion of antisemitism seen on the school’s campus following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, the conversation on how to respond to that issue has since then evolved into a larger debate over elite higher education’s role in advancing so-called “woke” ideologies that have polarized the American public.

Garber alluded to this fact in Monday’s statement, noting that the Trump administration’s proposed polices for Harvard — or “demands,” as he described them — are as much, if not more, about cultural issues as they are about campus antisemitism. Contained in a letter shared by Garber and reviewed by The Algemeiner, the policies called for “viewpoint diversity in hiring and admissions,” the “discontinuation of [diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives],” and “reducing forms of governance bloat.” They also implore Harvard to begin “reforming programs with egregious records of antisemitism” and to recalibrate its approach to “student discipline.”

Harvard, Garber said, is unwilling to do more than address campus antisemitism, dismissing the Trump administration’s other ideas as “assertions of power, unmoored from the law, to control teaching and learning at Harvard and to dictate how we operate.”

In response, US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he is open to levying severer financial sanctions one the university.

“Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be taxed as a political entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘sickness?’ [sic],” Trump posted on Truth Social, a social media platform he founded. “Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST.”

Meanwhile, former US President Barack Obama on Monday lauded Garber for “rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom,” and former Harvard president Larry Summers, speaking to The Harvard Crimson, said that the school should spend down its $53.2 billion endowment fund to offset the federal government’s cuts.

Others, however, such as pro-Israel activist Shabbos Kestenbaum expressed more opprobrious views of Harvard, accusing it of “fighting Trump harder than it ever fought antisemitism.” Christopher Rufo, a conservative author and resident scholar of the Manhattan Institute, said Trump “has every right to withhold funding” due to the university’s embrace of DEI and holding of segregated graduation ceremonies.

In the past, Rufo has criticized the pro-Israel movement’s method of advocacy, arguing that it risks legitimating “left-wing racialist concepts.”

The Trump administration may ultimately “prevail” in a “protracted” fight against Harvard University, noting that it has not asked for anything that is not supported by the public, Peter Wood, higher education expert and president of the National Association of Scholars, told The Algemeiner on Monday.

“Harvard will use its considerable resources to wage lawfare, and there will be many stages of judicial intervention before this is settled,” Wood said. “The demands by the task force are reasonable and valid, while Harvard’s ‘resistance strategy’ will fail because it is fundamentally based on arrogance. Harvard considers that it is a law unto itself, and it is greatly at odds with the judgement of the American people.”

Wood added, “Harvard is wealthy enough to play out its tactics for a long time, but the university’s supporters will not be pleased to see the institution’s endowment squandered in a losing fight with the federal government.”

The Trump administration last week paused nearly $1.8 billion in combined federal funding to Cornell University and Northwestern University.

In March, it cancelled $400 million in federal contracts and grants for Columbia University, a measure that secured the school’s acceding to a slew of demands the administration put forth as preconditions for restoring the money. Princeton University saw $210 million of its federal grants and funding suspended too, prompting its president, Christopher Eisgruber to say the institution is “committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination.” Brown University’s federal funding is also reportedly at risk due to its alleged failing to mount a satisfactory response to the campus antisemitism crisis, as well as its alignment with DEI movement.

“Jewish students studying on elite US campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year,” US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement last month. “US colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by US taxpayers. That support is a privilege, and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Trump Administration Freezes $2 Billion in Federal Funds for Harvard University first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Sign reading “+1000% of Antisemitic Acts: These Are Not Just Numbers” during a march against antisemitism, in Lyon, France, June 25, 2024. Photo: Romain Costaseca / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect

A Jewish man wearing a Star of David pendant was brutally attacked and called a “dirty Jew” in France last week, according to local media reports, as the country continues to face a rise in antisemitic incidents since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023.

The latest antisemitic attack took place around 1 pm on Friday in Villeurbanne, a city in eastern France that is home to the country’s second-largest Jewish community.

According to French media, a Jewish man, who was wearing a Star of David pendant, was physically attacked by two individuals, receiving a blow to the head from one of them.

As one of the assailants recorded the assault, the other attacker beat the victim while shouting slurs such as “dirty Jew” and “dirty fascist.”

Local police have opened an investigation into the attack and are working closely with the Jewish community in the area. French authorities are treating the incident as an antisemitic hate crime, with the investigation focusing on death threats motivated by religion, theft, and intentional violence.

The city’s mayor, Cédric Van Styvendael of the Socialist Party, condemned the incident on social media, offering his full support to the victim.

“I hope that this matter is fully investigated, and that the perpetrators are identified, arrested, and swiftly brought to justice,” he wrote. “Impunity is not an option.”

“I will keep doing everything I can to fight all forms of violence, ensuring that the people of Villeurbanne, regardless of their origin or faith, can live peacefully in our city,” he continued.

The assault comes amid a recent rise in antisemitic incidents across France, with this latest attack marking the third such incident in Villeurbanne in just over a month.

Last month, a 46-year-old woman on her way to Hebrew class was physically attacked and called a “dirty Jew.”

A Jewish man was also physically assaulted after a traffic incident. The assailant attacked him while hurling antisemitic insults, calling him a “Zionist” and a “dirty Jew” and blaming him for the “massacre in Gaza.” Based on hospital records, the victim suffered a triple fracture in his arm and multiple bruises.

Antisemitism in France continued to surge to alarming levels across the country last year, with 1,570 incidents recorded, according to a report by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) – the main representative body of French Jews.

The total number of antisemitic outrages last year was a slight dip from 2023’s record total of 1,676, but it marked a striking increase from the 436 antisemitic acts recorded in 2022.

In late May and early June, antisemitic acts rose by more than 140 percent, far surpassing the weekly average of slightly more than 30 incidents.

The report also found that 65.2 percent of antisemitic acts last year targeted individuals, with more than 10 percent of these offenses involving physical violence.

One such incident occurred in June, when a 12-year-old Jewish girl was raped by three Muslim boys in a Paris suburb. The child told investigators that the assailants called her a “dirty Jew” and hurled other antisemitic comments at her during the attack.

Antisemitism skyrocketed in France following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.

The post ‘Dirty Jew’: Jewish Man Brutally Attacked in France first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Social media influencer Chris Caresnone, otherwise known as the Babka King. Photo: Screenshot

The popular social media personality Chris Caresnone, known by some as the Babka King, said in a recent post that he has received “real hate” and threats for featuring Jewish food and culture on his pages, lamenting an online wave of antisemitism that has targeted him among others.

“I’m not here to feed conflict — I’m here to feed connection. And here’s the truth from my actual lived experience,” Caresnone, whose real name is Chris Campbell, wrote in a message to his social media followers last week. “I’ve made content showing love to so many cultures — Mexican, Polish, Filipino, Palestinian, Black, White, Honduran, Jewish, etc. … and the only time I consistently get real hate is when I show love to Jewish people.”

 

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A post shared by Chris CARESNONE The Babka King (@chriscaresnone)

Campbell has amassed a large following with his social media content, which focuses on bringing people together through food and culture. He has just under 640,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram.

He started trying Jewish foods after being sent a Babka in June 2024. Since then, he has tried many other Jewish foods and even went on a Jewish food tour in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with Yaakov Langer — who runs the successful Jewish social media and podcasting company Living L’Chaim.

However, Campbell said he has received significant antisemitism over his Jewish-related content. “That ain’t some political stance. That’s just me telling the truth,” he wrote. “I have received threats only when I showed love to the Jewish culture.”

Campell explained that seeing the antisemitism as someone who is not Jewish gives him a different perspective. “As someone who’s probably not in my space, especially if you’re non-Jewish, and then you see it, it’s different when you see it from an outsider’s perspective. It’s crazy. There’s only 14 million Jewish people on earth, y’all, and they’re the most, I can see why they’re always in fear.”

Campell also emphasized that the Jewish community has greatly appreciated his content showcasing its culture and food.

“The Jewish culture has embraced me in ways that others haven’t. They’ve sent me products, flown me out, paid me, supported me in my inbox, and shown me love. Asked for help And when someone shows love — I show love back. It’s called the law of reciprocity,” he wrote. “I started showing love FIRST to the Jewish Culture and all Cultures for that matter and all cultures have embraced me to be fair but the Jewish culture REALLY embraced me and then they showed me love. Understandably.”

Despite the negativity he sometimes receives, Campell wanted to make it known that “99 percent of the comments I get are pure love.” However, he continued, “this message is for that 1 percent who can’t stand to see a Black man showing love to Jewish people. I see you. But I don’t live in your energy.”

The post Social Media Personality Who Explores Food: ‘Only Time I Get Real Hate Is When I Show Love to Jewish People’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.