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$65M deal to sell American Jewish University’s LA campus collapses, throwing school’s finances into question
(JTA) – The financial future of American Jewish University is in flux again after a plan to raise a reported $65 million by selling its 22-acre campus in Los Angeles to a Swiss education company fell through.
Nine months after the university announced a deal had been reached to sell the property, the prospective buyer, EF Education First, said it was pulling out and abandoning its plans to establish a language school for international students at the site because of the opposition of residents in the highly affluent neighboring community.
“This is obviously a disappointment, but we will regroup to ensure that we use our land and facilities in the best way possible,” AJU president Jeffrey Herbst said in an email to the campus community Wednesday.
Proceeds from the deal were expected to alleviate the financial pressures faced by AJU, which shut down its undergraduate program in 2018 and whose Conservative rabbinical school, like many other seminaries, has struggled to attract applicants. Under Herbst, the university dedicated itself to expanding its online educational offerings.
Only last month, AJU’s Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies announced it would relocate to a leased space in a commercial office building in Pico-Robertson, a Los Angeles neighborhood with a large concentration of Jewish institutions and businesses. A spokesperson said AJU was not prepared to comment on what might happen to that plan given the cancellation of the sale.
In response to questions regarding the announcement, the university released a statement saying it would explore its options for the future of the campus. It is unclear whether the university will try to revive a previous offer from Milken Community School, a Jewish day school, to purchase the site for a reported $60 million, and whether Milken is still interested.
Milken’s head of school Sarah Shulkind declined to comment.
In a letter to the Los Angeles Planning Commission, which was overseeing the proposed conversion of the campus, EF blamed xenophobic complaints by neighbors for its decision to cancel the deal.
“Based on the comments we have heard and the letters submitted in opposition, it is crystal clear to us that there are individuals in the neighborhood who do not want international students in their community,” reads the letter signed by EF Vice President Shawna Marino. “This is the first time we have experienced this level of fear and bias.”
The company declined to respond to questions.
A leader of the local homeowners opposing the sale rejected the company’s characterization of the opposition and said neighbors were worried about the effects of the company’s plans to increase the level of activity at the site, including the housing of up to 700 students, especially in the case of an emergency evacuation in the wildfire-prone area. In one letter to the association, a resident of the adjoining development called the Education First plan “incredibly disturbing and dangerous” while saying that he wanted the land to be used by a school.
“Our concerns were always about safety, security and parking that logically flow from their high enrollment numbers,” Elizabeth Barcohana, vice president of a homeowners association representing nearly 100 nearby homes, told the Forward.
For some in Los Angeles’ Jewish community, the collapse of the sale revived previously abandoned hopes that the campus, with its major library and community ritual mikvah bath, would be handed over to another Jewish institution.
Immediately after the Jewish Journal broke the story of the deal’s cancellation on Wednesday, the Los Angeles newspaper’s publisher, David Suissa, published a short post saying that when Milken’s bid for the campus wasn’t accepted, “there was some bad blood” and that a new deal could bring reconciliation.
“We don’t always get second chances in life,” Suissa wrote. “This is one of them. Hanukkah seems to have come early for our community.”
A proposed law could open the door to other uses for the land. Spearheaded by a legislator who says he is driven by his Jewish identity, the California Senate recently voted to allow colleges and religious institutions to build affordable housing on their properties — even if they aren’t zoned for residential use. The legislation still needs approval from the California’s Assembly and governor. who has made the state’s housing crisis a top priority.
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Hormuz Standoff Continues as US-Iran Ceasefire Teeters
People walk past a mural depicting the late leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and the late Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Prospects of a peace deal with Iran dwindled on Tuesday after Donald Trump said a ceasefire was “on life support” as Tehran rejected a US proposal to end the conflict and stuck to a list of demands the US president described as “garbage.”
Iran has called for an end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, where US ally Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists. Tehran also emphasized its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, demanded compensation for war damage, and an end to the US naval blockade, among other conditions.
Trump, who will discuss the war with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his trip to Beijing this week, said Iran‘s response threatened the status of a ceasefire announced on April 7.
“I would call it the weakest right now, after reading that piece of garbage they sent us. I didn’t even finish reading it,” Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to end the ceasefire, told reporters on Monday. “It’s on life support.”
OIL EXTENDS GAINS
The US had proposed an end to fighting before starting talks on more contentious issues, including Iran‘s nuclear program.
Brent crude oil futures extended gains, climbing to around $108 a barrel, as the deadlock left the Strait of Hormuz largely closed. Before the war began on Feb. 28, the narrow waterway carried a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, and has since become a central pressure point in the conflict.
US Central Command said the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln was in the Arabian Sea continuing to enforce the US blockade against Iran, having redirected 65 commercial vessels and disabled four.
The Pentagon put the cost of the war at $29 billion so far, an increase of $4 billion from an estimate provided late last month. An official told lawmakers the new cost included updated repair and replacement of equipment and operational costs.
The war also has driven a roughly 50% increase in gasoline prices across the US, where consumer prices rose at a brisk clip for a second straight month in April, resulting in the largest annual increase in inflation in nearly three years.
TRUMP’S TRIP TO CHINA
Surveys show the war is unpopular with US voters less than six months before nationwide elections that will determine whether Trump’s Republican Party retains control of Congress.
Two out of three Americans, including one in three Republicans and almost all Democrats, think Trump has not clearly explained why the country has gone to war, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday.
Trump is expected to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday.
Trump wants China to convince Tehran to make a deal with Washington to end the conflict. China maintains ties with Iran and remains a major consumer of its oil exports. China’s foreign ministry has said the US blockade of the strait does not serve the common interest of the international community.
The US on Monday imposed new sanctions on individuals and companies it said were helping Iran ship oil to China, part of efforts to cut off funding for Tehran’s military and nuclear programs, while also warning banks about attempts to evade existing curbs.
IRANIAN OFFICIALS USE TOUGH RHETORIC
Iranian officials, meanwhile, issued statements attempting to show continued resolve in the face of US pressure.
A Fars news agency report cited Mohammad Akbarzadeh, deputy political director of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, as saying Iran had expanded its definition of the Strait of Hormuz into a “vast operational area” under a new plan.
There was no immediate reply from Iranian authorities to a request for comment on Akbarzadeh’s remarks, which defined the waterway as a zone stretching from the coast of the city of Jask in the east to Siri Island in the west.
In a post on X, parliamentary national security and foreign policy commission spokesperson Ebrahim Rezaei said Iran could enrich uranium up to 90% purity, a level considered weapons-grade, if the country is attacked once more.
Iran’s defense ministry spokesperson said any new attack by an enemy would be met with an immediate response, according to state media. In Tehran, the Guards held drills “centered on preparation to confront the enemy,” state TV reported.
TRICKLE OF SHIPPING THROUGH HORMUZ
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains at a trickle. Shipping data on Kpler and LSEG showed that three tankers laden with crude exited the waterway last week, with trackers switched off to avoid any Iranian attack.
In the Qatari capital Doha, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the strait should not be used as a “weapon.”
Lithuania said it could contribute minesweeping capabilities and resources for a potential mission to protect shipping in the strait. Britain said on Saturday it was deploying a warship to the Middle East in preparation for a potential multinational effort in the strait once conditions allow.
Kuwait summoned Iran’s ambassador and handed him a protest note over what it said was the infiltration of Bubiyan Island by armed members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and clashes with Kuwaiti armed forces, the foreign ministry said. There was no immediate reaction from Iran.
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New Israeli Law Sets Military Tribunal for Hamas Oct. 7 Terrorists
Hand prints and other markings made in the soot on a wall are seen, nearly a year since the deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, in Kibbutz Beeri, southern Israel, Sept. 15, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israel’s parliament passed a law late on Monday establishing a military tribunal to try hundreds of Palestinian terrorists who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, a step lawmakers said would help heal national trauma.
The surprise attack, led by elite “Nukhba” force fighters from the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, was Israel’s deadliest single day and the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. At least 1,200 people were killed, most of them civilians.
Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at dismantling Hamas’s military capabilities and political rule in neighboring Gaza.
Israel has been holding an estimated 200-300 fighters – the precise number is classified – captured in Israel during the attack, who have not yet been charged.
The special military court established by the law, to be presided over by a three-judge panel in Jerusalem, could also try others captured later in Gaza and suspected of participating in the attack, or of having held or abused Israeli hostages.
The new law was backed by a wide majority 93 of the Knesset’s 120 lawmakers, in a rare show of Israeli political unity.
The terrorists burst through the Gaza border and rampaged through southern Israeli villages, army bases, roads, and a music festival. Besides the killings, the fighters also took 251 hostages back to Gaza.
NO TRIAL DATE
Lawmakers from both the governing coalition and the opposition authored the bill, meant to ensure all assailants are brought to justice under existing Israeli criminal statutes for what it describes as crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
Proceedings will be public, with major hearings broadcast live. While defendants will attend only key hearings in person and all others by video, surviving victims will be allowed in-person access, according to the new law.
Ya’ara Mordecai, an international law expert at Yale Law School, said the new law raised some concerns about due process, given the military court setting, as well as a risk of atrocity proceedings turning into politicized or symbolic “show trials.”
Knesset member Yulia Malinovsky, one of the bill’s authors, said that the legislation ensures a fair and lawful trial.
“They will be sentenced by Israel’s judges, not by the street or by what we all feel,” Malinovsky said before the vote. “At the end of the day, what makes us great is our spirit, our resilience, ability to cope and withstand this immense pain.”
OPTION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Israel’s penal code includes capital punishment for some of the charges which the terrorists are likely to face. If handed down, a death sentence would trigger an automatic appeal on behalf of the defendant, according to the new law.
The last person executed in Israel was Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Nazi Holocaust, hanged in 1962 after being captured in Argentina by Israeli agents. Military courts in the West Bank can sentence Palestinian convicts to death but have never done so.
A separate law passed by Israel in March making death by hanging a default sentence for Palestinians convicted in military courts of deadly attacks drew criticism at home and abroad and is expected to be struck down by the Supreme Court.
HAMAS CONDEMNS NEW LAW
Hamas Gaza spokesperson Hazem Qassem said the new law “serves as a cover for the war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza.”
The International Criminal Court is probing Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war and has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders who have all since been killed by Israel.
Israel is also fighting a genocide case at the International Court of Justice. It rejects the allegations as politically motivated and has argued that its war is against Hamas, not the Palestinian people.
Israeli officials say the military has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication.
Another challenge for Israel has been Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
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Man Suspected of Plotting Violent Attack Had Sought to Target Louvre, Jewish Community, Officials Say
A man talks on the phone at the renovated Gallery of Five Continents (Galerie des Cinq Continents) in the Denon wing (Aile Denon) during a press preview at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, Dec. 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
A 27-year-old man suspected of plotting a violent attack and of planning to join Islamic State in Syria or Mozambique had sought to target a Parisian museum and the Jewish community, though no specific target was identified, a source close to the investigation said on Monday.
French newspaper Le Monde reported that the man, who was arrested on Thursday, had attempted to target the Louvre and the Jewish community in Paris’ 16th arrondissement.
Security gaps at the Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum, were spotlighted last October, when burglars made off with $102 million worth of jewels.
In France, as throughout Europe, antisemitic acts surged to record highs after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.