The New York Times building in New York City. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

“Harvard Derangement Syndrome” is the headline that the New York Times put over a 4,000-word article by Steven Pinker that it recently published. Pinker’s point is that “the invective now being aimed at Harvard has become unhinged.”

Yet if anyone has “become unhinged,” it is Pinker and his editors at the Times, who look silly in their eagerness to minimize Harvard’s antisemitism problem. Pinker calls it Harvard’s “alleged antisemitism,” which gives you a flavor of just how detached from reality the overall article is.

Don’t take my word for it. Here is a White House Memo in the Times from Maggie Haberman: “On substance, there are several Republicans and Democrats who share Mr. Trump’s view that Harvard and other major colleges are long overdue in addressing cultural issues. They welcome a focus on the antisemitism that was on display at some of the campus protests against Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.” Haberman writes antisemitism, not “alleged antisemitism.”

Here is a staff editorial in the New York Times: “some universities have failed to stand up to antisemitism.” Not “alleged antisemitism.”

Here is an email to the Harvard community from Harvard’s own president, Alan Garber, about a cartoon posted to social media by student and faculty anti-Israel groups: “The Antisemitic Cartoon.” Not “allegedly antisemitic.” Garber called it “flagrantly antisemitic.” The image was of a hand with a star of David and a dollar sign holding nooses around the necks of Gamal Abdel Nasser and Muhammad Ali.

Pinker goes on to write, “though the 300-page antisemitism report reviews every instance it could find in the past century, down to the last graffito and social media post, it cited no expressions of a goal to ‘destroy the Jews,’ let alone signs that it was the ‘dominant view on campus.’”

The antisemitism report was extensive, but it made no pretense of being either exhaustive or comprehensive. And even so, Pinker’s straw-man standard of a publicly expressed goal to destroy the Jews being the dominant view on campus is ridiculous. There were student groups cheering on the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas as a justified act of liberation and resistance. There were mobs chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “intifadah, intifadah, globalize the intifadah.” What does Pinker imagine is going to happen to the Jews in such a scenario? If he thinks Hamas is going to let the Jews live in peace, he’s deluding himself. The reason that members of Congress were asking then-Harvard president Claudine Gay questions about whether it was acceptable to call for the genocide of Jews on the Harvard campus wasn’t that the members of Congress were fantasizing, it was that the Jewish students at Harvard at the time and their allies perceived it as an ongoing problem.

Pinker also writes, “I have experienced no antisemitism in my two decades at Harvard, and nor have other prominent Jewish faculty members.”

Did Pinker not see the cartoon that Garber called “flagrantly antisemitic”? Did he not attend the Commencement last year when the speaker and honorary degree recipient “delivered off-the-cuff comments that appeared to echo traditional conspiracy theories about Jews, money, and power,” according to the report of Harvard’s own task force on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias, which described them as “seemingly antisemitic remarks”? Does he not read the Crimson or watch social media accounts of protests with students changing slogans such as “We don’t want no Zionists here?” If Pinker really hasn’t experienced any antisemitism, he must not get out much.

And anyway, what kind of allyship is this by Pinker to students, faculty, and staff who have been targeted by antisemitism? After a spate of campus rapes, would the Times publish a piece from a professor who feels an appropriate response is asserting, I have taught on this campus for twenty years and have never once been raped?

Writing in National Review, Stanley Kurtz of the Ethics and Public Policy Center observes, “Pinker is underplaying the problems.” Kurtz sure has that correct.

Pinker teaches psychology, so he’s an expert. But it may not be only Harvard’s critics suffering from what Pinker calls “Harvard Derangement Syndrome.” Professor Pinker seems to have come down with a variant of it himself—a variety that manifests itself by writing New York Times opinion pieces that minimize genuine problems. That doesn’t help improve the situation for those Harvard Jews who have been less lucky than Pinker or who are more perceptive than he is in understanding what is happening around them.

Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. He writes frequently at TheEditors.com. His media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.

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University of California, Davis. Photo: Daderot / Wikimedia Commons.

Tucked into the flatlands of Northern California, somewhere between the political corridors of Sacramento and the tech utopia of San Francisco and the Bay Area, lies Davis. It’s not the kind of place you stumble into by accident. If you’re in Davis, it’s always on purpose — and that purpose is UC Davis.

Originally a sleepy agricultural outpost, Davis was transformed in the early 20th century when the University of California decided it needed a dedicated “Farm School.” That modest institution eventually grew into UC Davis — now a world-class research university with over 40,000 students, renowned for its cutting-edge work in agriculture, environmental science, and veterinary medicine.

But despite its academic pedigree, Davis has never lost its off-the-beaten-path charm. It’s quirky, a little rustic, and proudly so. Downtown boasts the Davis Food Co-op — a community-owned grocery store on G Street — and on any given Saturday, the most heated debate will likely be about compost bins or whether it will rain.

It’s the kind of place where you expect friendly farmers markets, earnest book clubs, and maybe a spirited debate over heirloom tomatoes. What you don’t expect are flag-waving fanatics calling for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state.

So why am I telling you all this? Because earlier this week I hopped on a plane to Sacramento and made my way to Davis at the invitation of Dr. Amir Kol — a gentle soul and Israeli expat who teaches at the world-renowned UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. In addition to teaching, Amir does groundbreaking stem cell research that could one day help cure life-threatening diseases.

Or at least, that’s how I see him. But to a growing chorus of campus agitators, Amir Kol isn’t a mild-mannered scientist. Oh no — he’s a war criminal. A former IDF soldier. A baby-killer. A genocide supporter. A full-blown villain in their warped worldview.

Before October 7th, Amir lived a quiet, unassuming life. Like most of us, he was aware that antisemitism existed, but it didn’t touch his day-to-day. He wasn’t political. He wasn’t an activist.

But after Hamas’s horrific October 7th massacre — and the grotesque reaction on campus that followed, with Jewish students harassed, Israeli flags torn down, and Hamas banners waved — Amir realized he could no longer stay silent. He began to organize Jewish get-togethers and to advocate to the administration for the pro-Israel community on campus.

Without meaning to, Amir soon became a lighthouse — a source of light for others who felt isolated and afraid. And believe me, many Jews at UC Davis feel exactly that. According to the campus Chabad shliach, Rabbi Mendel Greenberg, there are an estimated 2,000 Jewish students on campus.

Fewer than 20 showed up to hear me speak. I asked where the rest were. The answer came back in three categories: indifferent, intimidated, or — and this is the most disturbing — absorbed into the very protest movements that vilify Jews and demonize Israel.

It’s in this surreal context that I was introduced to something called the MAPA Report. No, it’s not a new brand of hummus. MAPA stands for Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians, and Allies — an acronym I’d never encountered before, now proudly formalized by the City of Davis Human Relations Commission in a 60-page document that makes George Orwell’s 1984 look like an optimistic fairy tale.

This “report” — and I use that term loosely — is built entirely on subjective anecdotes, unverified stories, and the worst kind of identity politics. It paints Davis — yes, sleepy, bike-friendly, compost-loving Davis — as a bubbling cauldron of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian bigotry.

Seriously? Not only is there no verifiable data in the report, there’s no methodology. It’s just raw feelings, haphazardly compiled and amateurishly packaged as “findings” in a slickly designed deck.

Amir Kol sits on the Commission and was at the meeting where this nonsense was presented for adoption. He offered a sane, balanced critique. Public comment was no less scathing. But common sense didn’t stand a chance — the other six commissioners rubber-stamped the report anyway.

Meanwhile, over on campus, Chancellor Gary May and his administration are completely enthralled by the protesters. They call it “de-escalation.” But let’s be honest — it’s not de-escalation. It’s appeasement. UC Davis allowed protesters to set up illegal encampments for months — intimidating students, defacing property, glorifying Hamas — while the administration shrugged and claimed their hands were tied.

The US Department of Education didn’t buy it. After investigating multiple complaints of discrimination and harassment from UC students, they concluded that the UC hierarchy had failed to respond promptly or adequately to antisemitic incidents during the protests.

But Chancellor May thinks he deserves a medal. In his version of events, UC Davis achieved a monumental victory: “There were no protests at graduation.” That’s what he’s proud of. That’s what counts as success. Of course there were no protests — the protesters had already won. The administration was on their side.

In Parshat Bamidbar, God commands Moses to count the Israelites — not as a faceless crowd, but individually, by name. This wasn’t merely a census — it was an act of recognition. Each tribe, each family, each person was counted, acknowledged, and affirmed.

The message is unmistakable: in a vast and hostile wilderness, survival begins with identity. There is no other way to make it through. You need to know who you are, stand proudly in your place, and be counted as part of something greater.

What’s happening in Davis — and on campuses across America — is the exact inverse. Jews aren’t being counted — they’re being erased. Jewish identity isn’t recognized, it’s condemned. Jews are being recast as villains in someone else’s twisted narrative. Instead of being considered, they’re being canceled.

Instead of being allowed pride in their national heritage — a right now sacrosanct for every other group in every sphere of society — Jews are being told to sit down, stay silent – or worse, to join enthusiastically in their own erasure.

But Bamidbar won’t let us do that. The Torah says: Stand up. Be counted. Know your name, your tribe, your people. Don’t hide. And never — ever — apologize for existing. That’s what brave Amir Kol is doing. And that’s what those who showed up to hear me speak at UC Davis this week are trying to do, even if we were just a handful.

Because yes, it may be true that you don’t end up in Davis by accident. But if you’re Jewish — or unapologetically pro-Israel — you certainly won’t survive there, or anywhere, if you’re invisible.

The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California. 

The post A Modern Lesson From the Torah: Stand Up, Be Proud, and Be Counted first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attend a ceremony to sign an agreement of comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Jan. 17, 2025. Photo: Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via REUTERS

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has unequivocally aligned itself with the anti-American axis led by China and Russia. This is a deceitful betrayal of the United States and Western European nations, whose billions in aid have kept the PA out of financial collapse and sustained its very existence.

This fundamental alliance was on full display during PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’ participation in a major event held in Moscow on May 9, during which he warmly embraced Russian President Vladimir Putin as seen in the picture below.

The official PA daily was proud to report that Abbas’ attendance was at the “official invitation” of Putin, and “he also participated in the official dinner that Putin held in honor of [world] leaders” [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 10, 2025].

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 9, 2025]

The event was the 80th Moscow Victory Day Parade, celebrating Nazi Germany’s surrender in World War II. The combination of Abbas, Moscow, and the Nazis is highly ironic, given that Abbas previously was in Moscow as a student, where he wrote a doctoral thesis on his Holocaust denial.

Abbas met with both Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the event, warmly shaking hands with them and stressing the PA’s “strategic partnership” with their countries.

In his meeting with Xi, Abbas thanked the Chinese leader for the important “strategic partnership between the State of Palestine and its friend the People’s Republic of China.”:

Abbas expressed to the Chinese president his gratitude and appreciation for China’s positions that support our Palestinian people and its just cause in the international forums. He also gave thanks for the humanitarian aid and development aid that China presents to the Palestinian people.

The president emphasized the importance of the strategic partnership between the State of Palestine and its friend the People’s Republic of China. [emphasis added]

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 10, 2025]

Speaking with Putin, the PA chairman not only thanked Russia for its support, but also urged it to “develop” further bilateral ties “in various fields”:

During his meeting with … Putin … the president praised the historical relations between Palestine and Russia. He expressed his appreciation for Russia’s fixed positions in favor of the Palestinian people and its just rights …

He also discussed with his Russian counterpart the strengthening of the historical ties of friendship between the two states and ways to develop them in various fields, in a way that serves the interests of the two peoples. [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 9, 2025]

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 11, 2025]

This overt embrace of the anti-US axis further solidifies a position that has been repeatedly reiterated by the PA. For example, during a visit to Russia in May 2024, Abbas’ advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash called for a “new multipolar world order” comprised of “the Islamic world, Russia and China.”

In a similar vein, in a meeting with the Chinese ambassador this April, Fatah General Commissioner for Arab and China Relations Abbas Zaki called China the “savior of humanity” against the threat of “the Zionist-American alliance.”

Given Abbas’ call to further “develop” ties with Russia and China, it can only be assumed that the PA will continue to take a more pronounced position in support of America’s opponents. Abbas already displayed this stance when he recently cursed America, saying: “May their father be cursed.”

The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.

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