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One-Third of US Jewish College Students Feel Faculty Promote Antisemitism, Hostile Learning Environment: Survey
Pro-Hamas demonstrators at Columbia University in New York City, US, April 29, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
College professors across the US are promoting antisemitism and fostering hostile learning environments, according to Jewish students who responded to a newly released survey.
Roughly one-third of students, 32 percent, hold such feelings, according to the American Jewish Committee’s “State of Antisemitism in America 2024 Report,” which contains copious data on the Jewish experience in the US.
As part of the report, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) partnered with Hillel International to document Jewish students’ experiences during their time on US college and university campuses.
Of those who responded, 35 percent said they had personal encounters with antisemitism, 20 percent of whom did so more than once. Meanwhile, 32 percent reported feeling uncomfortable on campus, and 34 percent found ways to conceal that they are Jewish. forty-three percent refuse to discuss Israel and the conflict with the Palestinians for fear of being identified as a Zionist.
Additionally, 22 percent of Jewish students reported feeling that groups and campus events have excluded them because of anti-Jewish animus.
“How are Jewish students supposed to show up and engage in class or have trust in their educators if they feel that their professors are creating a hostile environment for Jews on campus?” AJC chief executive officer Ted Deutch said in a statement. “If students feel that they need to just keep their head down and earn their grade, they are not fully participating in the educational experience that they have a right to and deserve.”
He continued, “Educators and administrators need to take action to ensure that their classrooms and campuses are places free from hate, bigotry, and harassment so that all students — including Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist students — have the opportunity to grow and thrive.”
Hillel International chief executive officer Adam Lehman added, “As Jewish teens and their families make decisions about where they will spend their college years, it is crucial that they know they will be safe and able to fully express their Jewish identities. Jewish students should feel safe to express their Jewish identities no matter where they are on campus — whether at Hillel or in the dorms, the library, or the classroom.”
AJC’s survey also explored student attitudes regarding the “Gaza Solidarity Encampments” which emerged on college campuses across the US during the 2023-2024 academic year and caused incidents of violence and even the cancellation of Columbia University’s main commencement ceremony. Fifty-one percent said the demonstrations “made them feel unsafe on campus.”
The connection between anti-Zionist professors, many of whom are members of Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP), has been explored before.
In a study published in Sept. 2024, antisemitism watchdog AMCHA Initiative was able to establish a correlation between a school’s hosting a Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) chapter and anti-Zionist and antisemitic activity. For example, the researchers found that the presence of FJP on a college campus increased by seven times “the likelihood of physical assaults and Jewish students” and increased by three times the chance that a Jewish student would be subject to threats of violence and death.
FJP also “prolonged” the duration of encampment protests on college campuses, and such demonstrations lasted over four and a half times longer where FJP faculty were free to influence and provide logistic and material support to students. Professors at FJP schools also spent 9.5 more days protesting than those at non-FJP schools.
AMCHA added that FJP facilitated the proposal and success of student government resolutions demanding adoption of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement — which aims to isolate Israel culturally, financially, and diplomatically as the first steps towards its destruction. Wherever FJP was, BDS was “4.9 times likely to pass” and “nearly 11 times more likely to be included in student demands,” showing, AMCHA concluded, that FJP plays a role in radicalizing university students at the 103 schools — including Harvard University, Brown University, Princeton University, the University of Michigan, and Yale University — where it is active.
Citing its own latest data, AJC Center for Education Advocacy director Dr. Laura Shaw called on colleges and universities to reconcile anti-discrimination policies with intellectual and academic freedom.
“Academic freedom is foundational to higher education,” Shaw said. “However, academic discourse and debate can and must take place in an environment that is free from bias and discrimination. Our data, and work with students across the country, unfortunately show that American Jewish college students are feeling a pervasive lack of trust in their institutions and professors to maintain an atmosphere that is not biased against them. And we know that students who feel threatened cannot learn.”
The administration of US President Donald Trump has made moves to combat campus antisemitism, fulfilling a campaign promise which helped to elect him to a rare, second non-consecutive term in office.
Last month, Trump issued a highly anticipated executive order aimed at combating campus antisemitism and holding pro-terror extremists accountable for the harassment of Jewish students. Continuing work started during his first administration — when Trump issued Executive Order 13899 to ensure that civil rights law apply equally Jews — the “Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism” calls for “using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise … hold to account perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence.”
“It shall be the policy of the United States to combat antisemitism vigorously, using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence,” Trump said in the order, which denounced the previous administration’s handling of campus antisemitism as a “failure.”
No sooner had the executive order been issued than the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) moved to create a “multi-agency” Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, the aim of which is to “root out antisemitic harassment schools and on college campuses.”
“Antisemitism in any environment is repugnant to this nation’s ideals,” Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights who has been appointed to lead the initiative, said in a statement announcing the task force. “The department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found. The Task Force to Combat Antisemitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump’s renewed commitment to ending antisemitism in our schools.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Iran Says ‘Extremely Cautious’ on Success of Nuclear Talks with US
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Iran and the United States have agreed to continue nuclear talks next week, both sides said on Saturday, though Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi voiced “extreme cautious” about the success of the negotiations to resolve a decades-long standoff.
US President Donald Trump has signaled confidence in clinching a new pact with the Islamic Republic that would block Tehran’s path to a nuclear bomb.
Araqchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held a third round of the talks in Muscat through Omani mediators for around six hours, a week after a second round in Rome that both sides described as constructive.
“The negotiations are extremely serious and technical… there are still differences, both on major issues and on details,” Araqchi told Iranian state TV.
“There is seriousness and determination on both sides… However, our optimism about success of the talks remains extremely cautious.”
A senior US administration official described the talks as positive and productive, adding that both sides agreed to meet again in Europe “soon.”
“There is still much to do, but further progress was made on getting to a deal,” the official added.
Earlier Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi had said talks would continue next week, with another “high-level meeting” provisionally scheduled for May 3. Araqchi said Oman would announce the venue.
Ahead of the lead negotiators’ meeting, expert-level indirect talks took place in Muscat to design a framework for a potential nuclear deal.
“The presence of experts was beneficial … we will return to our capitals for further reviews to see how disagreements can be reduced,” Araqchi said.
An Iranian official, briefed about the talks, told Reuters earlier that the expert-level negotiations were “difficult, complicated and serious.”
The only aim of these talks, Araqchi said, was “to build confidence about the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.”
Trump, in an interview with Time magazine published on Friday, said “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran,” but he repeated a threat of military action against Iran if diplomacy fails.
Shortly after Araqchi and Witkoff began their latest indirect talks on Saturday, Iranian state media reported a massive explosion at the country’s Shahid Rajaee port near the southern city of Bandar Abbas, killing at least four people and injuring hundreds.
MAXIMUM PRESSURE
While both Tehran and Washington have said they are set on pursuing diplomacy, they remain far apart on a dispute that has rumbled on for more than two decades.
Trump, who has restored a “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran since February, ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers in 2018 during his first term and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran.
Since 2019, Iran has breached the pact’s nuclear curbs including “dramatically” accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% level that is weapons grade, according to the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week Iran would have to entirely stop enriching uranium under a deal, and import any enriched uranium it needed to fuel its sole functioning atomic energy plant, Bushehr.
Tehran is willing to negotiate some curbs on its nuclear work in return for the lifting of sanctions, according to Iranian officials, but ending its enrichment program or surrendering its enriched uranium stockpile are among “Iran’s red lines that could not be compromised” in the talks.
Moreover, European states have suggested to US negotiators that a comprehensive deal should include limits preventing Iran from acquiring or finalizing the capacity to put a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile, several European diplomats said.
Tehran insists its defense capabilities like its missile program are not negotiable.
An Iranian official with knowledge of the talks said on Friday that Tehran sees its missile program as a bigger obstacle in the talks.
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Palestinian Leader Abbas Names Likely Successor in Bid to Reassure World Powers
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas named close confidant Hussein al-Sheikh as his deputy and likely successor on Saturday, the Palestine Liberation Organization said, a step widely seen as needed to assuage international doubts over Palestinian leadership.
Abbas, 89, has headed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) since the death of veteran leader Yasser Arafat in 2004 but he had for years resisted internal reforms including the naming of a successor.
Sheikh, born in 1960, is a veteran of Fatah, the main PLO faction which was founded by Arafat and is now headed by Abbas. He is widely viewed as a pragmatist with very close ties to Israel.
He was named PLO vice president after the organization’s executive committee approved his nomination by Abbas, the PLO said in a statement.
Reform of the PA, which exercises limited autonomy in the West Bank, has been a priority for the United States and Gulf monarchies hoping the body can play a central role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Pressure to reform has intensified since the start of the war in Gaza, where the PLO’s main Palestinian rival Hamas has battled Israel for more than 18 months, leaving the tiny, crowded territory in ruins.
The United States has promoted the idea of a reformed PA governing in Gaza after the war. Gulf monarchies, which are seen as the most likely source of funding for reconstruction in Gaza after the war, also want major reforms of the body.
CALL FOR HAMAS TO DISARM
Israel’s declared goal in Gaza is the destruction of Hamas but it has also ruled out giving the PA any role in government there. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.
Hamas, which follows a militant Islamist ideology, has controlled Gaza since 2007 when it defeated the PA in a brief civil war after winning an election the previous year. It also has a large presence in the West Bank.
At a meeting of the PLO’s Central Council on Wednesday and Thursday that approved the position of vice president without naming an appointee, Abbas made his clearest ever call for Hamas to completely disarm and hand its weapons – and responsibility for governing in Gaza – to the PA.
Widespread corruption, lack of progress towards an independent state and increasing Israeli military incursions in the West Bank have undermined the PA’s popularity among many Palestinians.
The body has been controlled by Fatah since it was formed in the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993 and it last held parliamentary elections in 2005.
Sheikh, who was imprisoned by Israel for his activities opposing the occupation during the period 1978-89, has worked as the PA’s main contact liaising with the Israeli government under Abbas and been his envoy on visits to world powers.
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3rd Round of Nuclear Talks Between Iran, US Concludes in Oman
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – The third round of talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program has concluded on Saturday, US media reported.
The two sides are understood to have discussed the US lifting of sanctions on Iran, with focuses on technical and key topics including uranium enrichment.
On April 12, the US and Iran held indirect talks in Muscat, marking the first official negotiation between the two sides since the US unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term.
The second round of indirect talks took place in Rome, Italy, on April 19.
All parties, including Oman, stated that the first two rounds of talks were friendly and constructive, but Iranian media pointed out that the first two rounds were mainly framework negotiations and had not yet touched upon the core issues of disagreement.
According to media reports, one of the key issues in the expert-level negotiations will be whether Washington will allow Iran to continue uranium enrichment within the framework of its nuclear program. In response, Araghchi made it clear that Iran’s right to uranium enrichment is non-negotiable.
The US, Israel and other Western actors including the United Nation’s nuclear agency reject Iranian claims that its uranium enrichment is strictly civilian in its goals.
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