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We Need to Invest in Academic Research on Antisemitism Now
Anti-Israel protesters outside Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City, April 22, 2024. Photo: USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect
We live in a world of escalating antisemitism — and understanding this hatred is a necessity, not a luxury.
From Hamas’ brutal actions to the resurgence of anti-Jewish hostility on college campuses, we face a complex web of hatred fueled by ignorance, prejudice, and dangerous worldviews. To effectively combat the threats before us, we must build and strengthen an indispensable tool for the long run — powerful academic research.
Almost a decade ago, I came to the United States to study European antisemitism from a serene place in the Midwest — at Indiana University’s Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. I’m proud to still be working there, albeit increasingly on the issue of antisemitism in the US and on social media. The explosion of antisemitism that I saw in Europe 20 years ago, is what I see in the United States today. To combat it, we must fight on many fronts, and we cannot afford to neglect the intellectual battle.
Knowledge is Power
Without a deep understanding of the ideological underpinnings of groups like Hamas, which are rooted in genocidal and redemptive antisemitism, we cannot fully grasp the motivations behind their actions, let alone predict their next steps and those of their enablers.
The misconception of antisemitic terror groups is one of the reasons why some people still believe that Hamas is a “resistance” movement.
Without understanding the dynamics that are at play when Jews are violently attacked, we cannot properly see why antisemites are now doubling down instead of showing empathy for Jews, especially after October 7.
Antisemites are emboldened by antisemitic violence unless they face strong opposition, which is not the case at present. Without a well-developed knowledge of antisemitism, it’s hard to understand why seemingly progressive, albeit simplistic, ideologies feed into antisemitism and then become self-destructive.
Without knowledge of the history of antisemitism, we might think that the anti-Zionist slogans we hear today are the spontaneous expression of grassroots organizations and misguided reactions to the suffering of the Palestinians — when in fact almost all of them were cooked up in the Soviet propaganda machine decades ago and deliberately disseminated after the 1967 Six-Day War to hurt not only Israel, but the West in general.
Now this old antisemitism and anti-Israel ideologies are being reintroduced by well-funded organizations and spreading rapidly. Without such knowledge about these efforts in the past, we’re fighting shadows in the present and the future.
Academia Must Become Our Long-Term Ally Again
Jewish advocacy groups do important work, but they’re largely focused on immediate responses. For long-term solutions, we need the in-depth research that academic centers can offer, if they do it right and if they get the funding they need.
We need answers to these questions:
What best practices have proven to yield measurable results in the fight against antisemitism?
What are the main sources of antisemitism today, and what are the specific threats posed by each of these sources?
What are the mechanisms that can stop or reverse the normalization of antisemitism?
How can we identify potential allies who have a vested interest in combating the destructive mindset of antisemitism?
Academic centers researching antisemitism are still few and far between, and the ones that exist are severely understaffed and underfunded. A prime example is our Institute. It has a robust academic program, including an extensive and high-quality webinar series, an outstanding book series, a research lab on online antisemitism that attracts many students, and it offers a wide variety of courses on the Holocaust, antisemitism, and related topics.
However, the Institute, one of the largest of its kind in the US, currently has only two academic positions. Important research projects are put on hold, including the expansion of its research lab on antisemitism on social media, sources of anti-Jewish violence in the New York area, the evaluation of best practices for combating antisemitism in universities and high schools, the weaponization of the Holocaust against Jews across the political spectrum, the role of Islamist antisemitism in America, and many others.
While many junior and senior scholars would be eager to do some of the much-needed research, as of now, there are very few postdoctoral positions, visiting fellowships, and professorships available in the country. This needs to change quickly if meaningful research is to get off the ground.
Academic centers can bridge the partisan divide in which the fight against antisemitism is used to attack political opponents instead of addressing the issues at hand. And if these centers are robust and don’t depend on the good will of administrators for funding, they are better able to use academic freedom to produce knowledge and take positions that disrupt some of the Holocaust distortions and attacks on Jews. This is important within academia, where some of these attacks are made in the name of progressive academics — but it’s also important outside academia and in the fight against antisemitism across the political spectrum.
A Call to Action
More support for research and programs that fully understand and challenge antisemitic ideologies is vitally needed. Many alumni and donors are rightly shocked by what they have been seeing on campus after October 7. The lack of condemnation of the Hamas atrocities, calls for genocide against the Jewish people in the name of freedom and resistance, and the proliferation of antisemitic activities across the country are outrageous.
But giving up on universities is not the right strategy. Universities are too important to the future of our societies. Donors should use their leverage to remind universities that boycotts of Israel are fundamentally opposed to academic freedom, that antisemitic theories are the antithesis of the seeking of truth, and that calls for the genocide of Jews and the destruction of an entire country are morally so reprehensible that they should have no place on campus.
Donors, both large and small, should support research and programs that oppose antisemitic thinking and behavior.
By investing in serious and effective academic research, we equip ourselves with the knowledge and tools needed to effectively combat antisemitism, not only today but for generations to come. We need a vision for a future in which all individuals are respected and taken seriously, including open and frank discussions. If this cannot be done in academia, where can it be done?
Günther Jikeli holds the Erna B. Rosenfeld Professorship at the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism in the Borns Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University. He heads the research lab “Social Media & Hate.”
The post We Need to Invest in Academic Research on Antisemitism Now first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.