RSS
Over One-Third of Jewish College Students Feel Need to Hide Identity Since Oct. 7 Massacre, Hillel Poll Finds
George Washington University students assembled at the campus’ Kogan Plaza on Oct. 9, 2023 to mourn those who died during Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. Photo: Dion J. Pierre/The Algemeiner
More than one in three Jewish college students reporting feeling the need to hide their Jewish identity on campus since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, according to a new survey.
A striking 37 percent of Jewish students said they have needed to hide their Jewish identity, according to the results of a poll published on Monday by Hillel International, the largest Jewish campus organization in the world.
The survey, which included 300 Jewish college students, found that 35 percent of respondents said there have been acts of hate or violence against Jews on campus. A majority of those surveyed said they were unsatisfied with their university’s response to those incidents.
The findings came amid a historic surge in antisemitism across the world, especially in the US and Europe. A recent report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), for example, recorded 832 outrages targeting American Jews between Oct. 7 and Nov. 7 — an average of 28 incidents per day and a 316 percent increase on the same period in 2022. Across Europe, meanwhile, governments have experienced record increases in antisemitic incidents in countries such as France and Germany since the Hamas pogrom in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
College campuses across the West have been hubs of such antisemitism over the past six weeks, with students and faculty both demonizing Israel and rationalizing Hamas’ terror onslaught. Incidents of harassment and even violence against Jewish students have also increased. As a result, Jewish students have expressed feeling unsafe and unprotected on campuses. In some cases, Jewish communities on campuses have been forced to endure threats of rape and mass slaughter.
“The hate that fueled Hamas’ attack on Israel has rapidly spread to college campuses, leaving Jewish students feeling both unsupported and unsafe,” Adam Lehman, CEO of Hillel International, said in a statement. “And the data show that it’s getting worse. At a time when Jewish students need to feel safe, supported, and protected by university presidents and administrators more than they ever have before, Hillel International is working day and night to ensure universities are taking concrete actions to protect Jewish communities on campuses.”
Hillel International’s survey found that 68 percent of Jewish students reported feeling sad and 54 percent said they were afraid in the current environment. About four out of five Jewish students (78 percent) said Jewish spaces were more important than ever.
Even before Oct. 7, the problem of Jewish students being afraid to show their identity existed. In 2021, after the last conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas, 30 percent of Jewish students concealed their Jewish identity, according to a survey taken that year by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. The findings showed Jewish students sought to avoid conflicts with professors and classmates, fearing low marks and verbal and physical attacks they had seen or heard about.
Hillel’s latest survey was conducted online by Benenson Strategy Group on behalf of Hillel International between Nov. 14 and 15.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Over One-Third of Jewish College Students Feel Need to Hide Identity Since Oct. 7 Massacre, Hillel Poll Finds first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
16 States Support Trump Admin Over Harvard in New Amicus Brief as Part of Federal Funding Lawsuit

Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US on Oct. 14, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Attorneys general representing 16 US states have together filed an amicus brief in support of the Trump administration, which is being sued by Harvard University for confiscating some $2.26 billion of its federal contracts and research grants.
On Monday, the attorneys general of Iowa, Kansas, Georgia, Florida, and others said in their amicus brief that the Trump administration took appropriate action to quell what they described as Harvard University’s flagrant violation of civil rights laws concerning its handling of the campus antisemitism crisis as well as its past history of violating the Constitution’s equal protection clause by practicing racial preferences in admissions.
“Harvard both admits that it has a problem with antisemitism and acknowledges that problem as the reason it needs a multi-agency Task Force to Combat Antisemitism. Yet when the federal government acted to rectify that acknowledged violation of federal law through a negotiated practice, Harvard cried retaliation,” the brief says. “Its characterization of its refusal to follow federal nondiscrimination law as First Amendment speech is sheer chutzpah.”
It continued, “There is strong evidence of Harvard’s discriminatory animus, and the First Amendment does not shield it from consequences. This court should deny summary judgement and allow the federal government to proceed with enforcing the law. Perhaps if Harvard faces consequences for violating federal antidiscrimination law, it will finally stop violating federal antidiscrimination law.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard alleges that the Trump administration bypassed key procedural steps it must, by law, take before sequestering federal funds. It also said that the Trump administration does not aim, as it has publicly pledged, to combat campus antisemitism at Harvard but to impose “viewpoint-based conditions on Harvard’s funding.”
The Trump administration has proposed that Harvard reform in ways that conservatives have long argued will make higher education more meritocratic and less welcoming to anti-Zionists and far-left extremists. Its “demands,” contained in a letter the administration sent to interim Harvard president Alan Garber — who subsequently released it to the public — 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 implored Harvard to begin “reforming programs with egregious records of antisemitism” and to recalibrate its approach to “student discipline.”
Harvard has its own defenders, including those who are responsible for drawing scrutiny of antisemitism and far-left extremism there.
Earlier this month, the Palestine Solidarity Committee — which blamed Israel for Hamas’s Oct. 7., 2023, massacre mere hours after images and videos of the terrorist organization’s brutality spread online — filed an amicus brief which argued that the school’s alleged neglecting to restrict antisemitic demonstrations did not violate the civil rights of Jewish students.
“The expression of views critical of Israel — even where it personally offends — is not actionable harassment under Title VI [of the US Civil Rights Act],” wrote Palestine Legal attorney Radhika Sainath, who represents the group. “Defendants have not specifically alleged what actions they believe created a severe or pervasive hostile environment for Jewish students in violation of Title VI — or what educational programs or activities were limited or denied by such acts.”
Sainath continued, comparing Jewish Zionists to segregationists who defended white supremacy during Jim Crow, while comparing anti-Zionists — who have been trafficking racial slurs and epithets about African Americans on social media during the Gaza war — to the civil rights activists of the 1960s.
“Many white parents who supported segregation were discomforted — even frightened — by the prospect of Black children attending schools with their children. But advocacy for the rights of Black Americans to live as equal citizens was not anti-white any more than advocacy for the equal rights of Palestinians is anti-Jewish,” Sainath charged. “In fact, it is opposition to equal rights of Black people that is discriminatory, just as opposition to equal rights for Palestinians is discriminatory.”
The Palestine Solidarity Committee triggered a cascade of events in which Harvard was accused of fostering a culture of racial grievance and antisemitism and important donors suspended funding for various programs. Additionally, the school’s first Black president, Claudine Gay, resigned in disgrace after being outed as a serial plagiarist. Her tenure was the shortest in Harvard’s history.
More incidents followed over the next several months. In one notorious episode, a mob of anti-Zionists — including Ibrahim Bharmal, editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review — were filmed following, surrounding, and intimidating a Jewish student. A pro-Hamas faculty group also shared an antisemitic image depicting a left-hand tattooed with a Star of David, containing a dollar sign at its center, dangling a Black man and an Arab man from a noose.
Earlier this month, US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon hinted at the possibility of unfreezing billions of dollars the federal government put on ice, telling Bloomberg’s Akayla Gardener, “It would be my goal that if colleges and universities are abiding by the laws of the United States and doing what we’re expecting of them, they could expect to have taxpayer funded programs.”
Responding to an additional question Bloomberg posed regarding President Donald Trump’s saying recently that Harvard University — which lost over $2.26 billion during the spree of cuts — “is starting to behave” — McMahon agreed with the president, suggesting that Harvard and the administration are drawing near a compromise. She added, however, that taxing Harvard’s $53.2 billion endowment, the value of which exceeds the gross domestic product of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and over 120 other nations, would benefit taxpayers. In April, Trump ordered the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to review Harvard’s tax-exempt status, a measure that was cheered by populists while being regarded as extreme by others who argue that following through on the revocation stands to make American higher education less competitive.
Trump addressed a potential “deal” with Harvard on Friday, writing on his Truth Social platform, saying a “deal will be announced over the next week or so.” He added, “They have acted extremely appropriately during these negotiations, and appear to be committed to doing what is right. If a settlement is made on the basis that is currently being discussed, it will be ‘mindbogglingly’ HISTORIC, and very good for our Country.”
To date, Harvard has held its own against the federal government, building a war chest with a massive bond sale and notching a recent legal victory in the form of an injunction granted by a federal job which halted the administration’s restrictions on its international students — a policy that is being contested in a separate lawsuit.
“The court’s order will continue to allow Harvard to host international students and scholars while this case moves forward,” a Harvard spokesperson told Newsweek on Tuesday. “Harvard will continue to defend its rights — and the rights of its students and scholars.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post 16 States Support Trump Admin Over Harvard in New Amicus Brief as Part of Federal Funding Lawsuit first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US Jewish Lawmakers Challenge Hegseth Over Pentagon Press Secretary’s Social Media Antisemitism

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on US President Donald Trump’s budget request for the Department of Defense, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
The Congressional Jewish Caucus on Tuesday sent a letter to US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, demanding explanations for the continued employment of Kingsley Wilson, now serving as the Pentagon’s press secretary, following revelations of her social media postings peddling antisemitic conspiracy theories.
“These statements include promoting the antisemitic and racist ‘Great Replacement’ theory, praising far-right political movements using slogans tied to neo-Nazi groups, and repeating patently false statements commonly circulated in neo-Nazi circles about Leo Frank, a Jewish man who was lynched by an antisemitic mob in Georgia in 1915,” the legislators wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Jewish Insider.
According to the members of Congress, on four occasions Wilson had written “Ausländer Raus!,” a term associated with neo-Nazis and banned in Germany.
One August 17, 2024, post on X stated “Leo Frank raped & murdered a 13-year-old girl. He also tried to frame a Black man for his crime. The ADL turned off the comments because they want to gaslight you.”
Frank, a Jewish factory manager, was sentenced to death by hanging for the rumored rape and the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan in Atlanta in 1913. Phagan was found dead in the basement of the factory in which Frank worked.
The 31-year-old’s sentence was later commuted to life in prison. However, an armed mob, infuriated by the decision to downgrade the sentence, abducted Frank from his jail cell and lynched him.
Frank was officially pardoned in 1986, and historians largely believe that he was wrongly convicted. Historians also believe that Frank’s trial and subsequent conviction were compromised by antisemitism. During his court proceedings, thousands of spectators gathered and yelled chants such as “hang the Jew.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was founded following the lynching of Frank and regularly receives comparable attacks from neo-Nazis and other antisemites today.
In previous testimony before Congress regarding Wilson’s remarks, Hegseth had said he “would need to see precisely what’s being characterized.” He described the questioning as “a mischaracterization attempting to win political points.”
Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA) led the letter. Cosigners included Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Seth Magaziner (D-RI), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), Eugene Vindman (D-VA), Kim Schrier (D-WA), Mike Levin (D-CA), Becca Balint (D-VT), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL).
The congressmembers concluded with four questions for Hegseth, beginning with asking if he could “confirm whether or not the public comments made by Kingsley Wilson are permissible for a civilian employee serving in a senior, public-facing role within the department?”
The letter asked, “When a department employee has been confirmed to have made public statements of this nature, how has the department assessed whether those remarks are relevant or serious enough to warrant action?” It also inquired about “specific steps” taken in response to previous similar instances.
The legislators concluded by asking, “Do you, Secretary Hegseth, find these comments to be acceptable language for an official representing the Department of Defense?”
Following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks across southern Israel, Wilson expressed disinterest, writing that “the images of the babies murdered by Hamas are horrific. I wish images of aborted babies evoked a similar global outcry.” She embraced a conventional position long advocated by the non-interventionist, paleo-conservative right, saying the United States should not “get involved in foreign ethnic conflicts” and that the Israel-Hamas war was “none of our business.”
Wilson also made explicit her support for “the Great Replacement Theory,” the conspiracy theory which insists a cabal of Jews has plotted to replace white Americans with brown immigrants. She wrote, “The Great Replacement isn’t a right-wing conspiracy theory … it’s reality.”
This racist fantasy inspired convicted mass murder Robert Bowers to slaughter 11 Jews on Oct. 27, 2018, at the Tree of Life – Or L’Simcha Congregation in Pittsburgh. Bowers currently sits on death row at the US Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
In interviews with Jewish Insider, multiple Republican senators expressed their concerns with Wilson’s statements, including Republican Sens. Roger Wicker (MS), Rick Scott (FL), and James Lankford (OK).
Wicker confirmed he was looking into Wilson’s statements while Scott said “obviously I don’t agree with her comments. I trust the Pentagon will address this.”
Lankford called the remarks “weird stuff” and noted an ongoing pattern of defense hires with questionable positions on Israel or hateful statements. “So yes, I have some questions, and I think those are fair questions,” he said.
Wilson’s isolationist sentiments and promotion of antisemitic conspiracies reflect viewpoints in line with a wing of the so-called Make America Great Again movement which now finds itself at odds with President Donald Trump’s decision to drop three 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Far-right provocateur Candace Owens also began a series of antisemitic social media postings in August 2024 which included the promotion of conspiracy theories about Frank.
In response to the recent strikes on Iran, Owens appeared to take Iran’s side on X, writing to her 6.9 million followers on Tuesday that “Iran is alleging that they never violated the ceasefire. Israel has a LONGGGG history of faking ceasefire violations. Iran did not begin this war so no one should believe anything [Israel Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is alleging. He wants this war, badly.”
The post US Jewish Lawmakers Challenge Hegseth Over Pentagon Press Secretary’s Social Media Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Trump Says He’ll Back Republican Primary Challenger Against ‘Pathetic Loser’ and Israel Critic Thomas Massie

US Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the US Capitol on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
US President Donald Trump repudiated Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) on Monday, calling him a “pathetic loser” after the Kentucky Republican criticized Trump’s weekend strike on Iranian nuclear facilities as unconstitutional.
Massie, a libertarian‑leaning congressman and a staunch opponent of American intervention in foreign conflicts, joined Democratic colleagues Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) on the CBS program “Face the Nation” to denounce the strikes on Iran. Massie lambasted Trump’s decision to authorize the military actions as an unconstitutional abuse of presidential power, claiming that there was “no imminent threat” to the US.
In response, Trump took to Truth Social, labeling Massie “not MAGA,” referring to the Make America Great Again movement of his supporters. Trump also accused the lawmaker of routinely voting “NO” and supporting Iran’s nuclear ambitions while the regime chants “Death to America.” Trump slammed Massie for supposedly not supporting his agenda.
“Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky is not MAGA … Actually, MAGA doesn’t want him, doesn’t know him, and doesn’t respect him,” Trump said.
“Massie is weak, ineffective, and votes ‘NO’ on virtually everything … He is disrespectful to our great military — not even acknowledging their brilliance and bravery in yesterday’s attack, which was a total and complete WIN,” Trump added.
Trump urged Kentucky Republicans to refrain from voting for Massie’s reelection, arguing that the representative has not been an effective lawmaker or advocate for the conservative legislative agenda. Massie has been an outspoken critic of several of Trump’s policies, including his “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
“MAGA should drop this pathetic LOSER, Tom Massie, like the plague! … GET THIS ‘BUM’ OUT OF OFFICE, ASAP!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The president continued, claiming that he would support a challenger to unseat the outspoken Kentucky representative.
“We will have a wonderful American Patriot running against him in the Republican Primary, and I’ll be out in Kentucky campaigning really hard.”
Close advisers of Trump have recently launched a new anti-Massie super PAC and are searching for the right candidate to challenge the incumbent representative, according to reporting by Axios.
Later on Sunday, Massie responded on X/Twitter that Trump “declared so much War on me today it should require an Act of Congress.”
Since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of Israel, Massie has been one of the few Republicans to consistently question US military and financial support for Israel. He opposed multiple House resolutions condemning Hamas and affirming Israel’s right to exist, labeling such measures as overly broad attempts to stifle speech. In late October 2023, Massie broke with his party by voting against a $14.3 billion aid package to Israel. During an appearance on the podcast of controversial political commentator Tucker Carlson, Massie criticized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — the foremost pro-Israel lobbying group in the US — accusing the organization of employing “AIPAC babysitters” to steer congressional votes.
The post Trump Says He’ll Back Republican Primary Challenger Against ‘Pathetic Loser’ and Israel Critic Thomas Massie first appeared on Algemeiner.com.