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U. of Vermont agrees to improve antisemitism training, ending federal case and capping a tumultuous year
(JTA) – A year of strained relations between the University of Vermont and its Jewish community has led to the school resolving a federal antisemitism complaint and pledging to do more to protect its Jewish students — including from anti-Zionist rhetoric.
The university and the U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that they had reached a resolution to the complaint, which the department took up last fall after it was filed by students and pro-Israel groups. The complaint alleged that the institution had not properly responded to Jewish students’ allegations of antisemitic discrimination. Investigators determined that the university “received notice, but did not investigate” several claims of antisemitic behavior on campus, and that the steps it ultimately took did not adequately address students’ concerns.
Notably, the department’s office of civil rights determined that one of the ways the university’s Jewish students had been discriminated against was through “national origin harassment on the basis of shared ancestry,” reflecting a controversial argument promoted by pro-Israel groups that anti-Zionist rhetoric is harmful to all Jews because the Jewish people share Israel as an ancestral homeland. The resolution of the complaint also reflects a sharp change in course for the school, which had initially denied wrongdoing and blamed the accusations on an orchestrated external campaign — a response that upset the campus Jewish community.
“This complaint was overwhelmingly dealing with the antisemitism that masks as anti-Zionism, and what the resolution demonstrates is how seriously [the office] is taking that kind of antisemitism,” Alyza Lewin, president of the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency after the ruling. A pro-Israel legal group that often involves itself in campus disputes, the Brandeis Center was one of the organizations that filed the initial complaint on behalf of mostly anonymous students.
The Department of Education responded to a JTA request for comment by pointing to its letter of resolution with the university. Its civil rights office has fielded several challenges to anti-Zionist rhetoric since the Donald Trump administration expanded the department’s mandate around antisemitism in 2019 under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The office of civil rights is fast becoming a favorite tool for pro-Israel activists: It also announced this week it would open an investigation into allegations of a professor’s antisemitic behavior at George Washington University, a week after the university’s own investigation cleared the faculty member of charges brought by another pro-Israel group.
In the agreement, the University of Vermont pledged to revise its policies for reporting discrimination and to train its staff on how to specifically respond to discrimination complaints. The Department of Education will also review the university’s records regarding its response to last year’s allegations of antisemitism. One of the areas in which the university said it would train staff is on how to recognize “the Title VI prohibition against harassment based on national origin, including shared ancestry.”
Among the allegations: cases of unofficial student groups denying admission to “Zionist” students (including a support group for sexual-assault survivors); one graduate teaching assistant who had mused on social media about lowering the grades of Zionist students; and a group of students who’d reportedly thrown an object at the campus Hillel building (the complaint claimed it was a rock; Hillel staff told JTA it was a puffball mushroom). More than 20% of the university’s student body is Jewish, according to Hillel International.
Evan Siegel, a Jewish junior at the University of Vermont, poses in his off-campus housing in Burlington, October 13, 2022. Siegel was initially critical of his school for its handling of a federal antisemitism investigation, but praised its eventual resolution. (Andrew Lapin/Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
The agreement marked a sharp change from how the university first responded when the government announced its intent to investigate the complaint last fall. Back then, the university’s president, Suresh Garimella, issued a combative statement in which he said the university “vigorously denies the false allegation of an insufficient response to complaints of threats and discrimination.” He also issued a point-by-point refutation of the allegations in the complaint.
Garimella further charged that the complaint had been orchestrated by “an anonymous third party” that had “painted our community in a patently false light.” In addition to the Brandeis Center, the complaint was filed on behalf of students by the watchdog group Jewish On Campus, whose antisemitism-tracking methodology has been criticized by other groups.
Garimella’s combativeness at the time was an unusual move for the leader of a university accused of violating Title VI law, which prohibits discriminatory behavior at federally-funded programs or institutions, such as public universities. Groups like the Brandeis Center have increasingly leaned on Title VI in federal complaints to argue that pro-Israel students face discrimination. Title VI cases have become a central component of litigating multiple kinds of Israel discourse on campus, ranging from a pro-Israel student body president being targeted at the University of Southern California to a resolution passed by pro-Palestinian law student groups at the University of California, Berkeley.
In Burlington, where the university is located, some liberal Jews were initially dubious of the complaint. Felicia Kornbluh, a history professor on campus who often teaches American Jewish history, told JTA she was concerned about “playing into the narrative” of a conservative, pro-Israel agenda set by the Brandeis Center, whom she described as “allies of the Trump wing of the Republican party.” (The center’s founder, Kenneth Marcus, served as assistant secretary of education for civil rights under Trump.)
But the complaint also landed in the aftermath of a contentious Burlington city council meeting at which, Kornbluh and others said, pro-Palestinian protesters became hostile to Jews. The meeting featured a council resolution to endorse the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign against Israel, and resulted in a raucous scene where pro-Palestinian groups shouted down Jewish students singing prayers for peace. Kornbluh described the atmosphere there as “really scary,” and “a little like Nuremberg.” Vermonters for Justice in Palestine, a local activist group, held multiple rallies on campus in support of the administration after the antisemitism complaint was publicized.
Against this backdrop, Garimella’s dismissiveness left the university’s Jewish community frustrated and angry. During a Jewish Telegraphic Agency visit to Burlington after the president’s initial statement, Jewish students and faculty said they felt like university administration was not taking their concerns seriously.
“I feel like we’re not being supported here,” Evan Siegel, a Jewish junior who is involved with student government, told JTA while sitting in off-campus housing adorned with Jewish summer camp memorabilia. “And that sucks.”
Employed as a campus tour guide, Siegel wondered, “How am I supposed to give tours and be like, ‘UVM is the best,’ when my president is being an ass?”
Other Jewish students told JTA at the time they had no intention of supporting the university financially or otherwise after they graduated, and wouldn’t advertise the fact that they were alums.
Matt Vogel, executive director of Hillel at the University of Vermont, where one of the alleged antisemitic incidents had taken place, also reluctantly played a role in the drama of the last year, after hoping he would be able to keep his focus on Hillel’s student programming. As the fall semester was starting, he sent an email home to parents reading, “Antisemitism keeps me awake at night.” Throughout the semester, Hillel also became more active in calling out antisemitism on social media.
“Just by default, we’re at the center of it,” Vogel told JTA last fall in the Hillel building, as student volunteers chopped vegetables for that evening’s Shabbat dinner in the next room. “I’ve overheard a student saying, like, a Hillel sticker on their water bottle might turn into a political conversation about Zionism in the first two seconds.”
Matt Vogel, executive director of Hillel at the University of Vermont, prepares for Shabbat in his Burlington office, October 14, 2022. Vogel praised the university for ultimately resolving its federal antisemitism complaint in April 2023 after months of tension. (Andrew Lapin/Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
Soon, Kornbluh decided that the administration’s response to the allegations was unacceptable, and penned a local op-ed opposing it that was later shared by her faculty union in a show of solidarity.
“I was stunned by the tone and content” of Garimella’s letter, Kornbluh wrote in the piece. Accusing the university of “gaslighting,” she added, “I do know that one persistent rhetorical strategy of antisemites in Europe and the United States has been to say that there is no antisemitism.”
Garimella reversed course following weeks of criticism, a strongly worded letter from more than a dozen Jewish groups including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee and news of several high-profile antisemitic incidents nationally. In October, the university published a website intended to support Jewish students — accompanied by a new statement from Garimella, who now condemned antisemitism unequivocally.
“I have listened to members of our campus community who experience a sense of risk in fully expressing their Jewish identity,” he wrote. ”I want my message to be clear to the entire campus community: antisemitism, in any form, will not be tolerated at UVM.”
This time, Garimella pledged not only to investigate individual reports of antisemitism, but also to work to change the campus community’s approach to the issue. He committed to further anti-bias training and building a streamlined bias reporting system for students, and said the university’s diversity office would work to build and maintain “meaningful actions that ensure our Jewish students and community members feel support and care.”
After Monday’s resolution, Garimella was fully supportive of the findings of the Department of Education’s investigation.
“The resolution reflects an important step in UVM’s engagement with our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the surrounding community,” he wrote in a message to the campus. “It also reflects numerous conversations we have had with our campus Jewish community and important local and national voices on the consequential and complex issue of antisemitism.”
In response to a JTA request for comment, a university spokesperson sent copies of the letters from the president and provost. (Throughout the year, the president’s office had declined multiple JTA interview requests.)
Jewish groups, including the university Hillel, celebrated the resolution. “The President and senior leadership’s new statements today represent tangible and accountable steps forward,” Vogel told JTA in a statement. “We hope this ensures that no Jewish student or any student at UVM experiences discrimination or harassment because of their identity.”
The Hillel building at the University of Vermont in Burlington, October 14, 2022. Hillel found itself at the center of a federal antisemitism complaint against the university. (Andrew Lapin/Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
Also celebrating the ruling was Jewish on Campus, a subsidiary of the World Jewish Congress and one of the groups that brought the initial complaint. “Today’s announcement is a victory for the safety and security of Jewish students,” Julia Jassey, the group’s CEO and a University of Chicago undergraduate, said in a statement.
Avi Zatz, the only University of Vermont student on the initial complaint who has made their identity public, is himself an employee of Jewish on Campus. Citing antisemitism in Vermont, Zatz recently transferred to the University of Florida — in a state that may soon pass legislation that, critics say, could harm Jewish studies on all its public campuses.
“I can’t have hoped for a better resolution,” Zatz, a junior, told JTA from his new school in Gainesville, Florida. While he said he was still glad to have left Vermont, he added, “I finally feel a sense of closure.”
Kornbluh, for her part, said the resolution was “a start,” but criticized the university for not voicing a stronger commitment to Jewish studies or meeting with Jewish faculty.
Reached by phone from Madrid, where he is studying abroad this semester, Siegel said he was “proud, determined, ready for more” following the university’s agreement.
“This resolution was really, in a respectful way, a slap in the face to the university to do better,” he said. “I, for one, am ready to get back on campus and continue my work as hard as I can.”
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The post U. of Vermont agrees to improve antisemitism training, ending federal case and capping a tumultuous year appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Some Black Jews feel more ostracized from Jewish communities post-Oct. 7, survey finds
Growing up as a Black woman in the South with a Jewish father, Autumn Leonard often felt like “an outsider looking in” on Jewish communities. She wasn’t raised particularly Jewish, and her Black and Jewish identities felt disconnected from each other — as if she had to choose one.
But after she married a Jewish man and wanted to raise Jewish children, she sought out ways to engage more deeply with her Jewishness. She found groups that affirmed both of her identities, chairing the “Race Working Group” at the progressive Brooklyn synagogue Kolot Chayeinu and becoming a lead organizer with the Black Jewish Liberation Collective.
“That made me feel like, Oh, Jewish is something I can be — as opposed to something over there that comes from my ancestors,” Leonard said.
After the attacks of Oct. 7, however, Leonard said she began to notice a shift. Jewish communities seemed more inward-looking, she said, with a heightened focus on combating antisemitism and a retreat from commitments to racial justice. She began hearing stories from Black Jews who felt increasingly sidelined or isolated.
So she set out to gather empirical evidence to test her hunch.
The result was a survey conducted through the Black Jewish Liberation Collective, a progressive group that connects Black Jews for political organizing and cultural events. The group circulated the survey beyond its own membership and received 104 responses from a geographically diverse group — most from New York state, but also with respondents in Canada, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Participants were between 21 and 75 years old and reported a range of religious observance levels, from just ethnically Jewish to Orthodox. Responses were collected between October 2024 and January 2025.
The survey — which represents a tiny subset of the estimated 1% of U.S. Jews who identify as Black — found that 62% of respondents reported “increased marginalization” in a Jewish community or space after Oct. 7, 2023.
Those feelings of ostracization largely had to do with disagreements around Israel and Gaza, according to the survey. While survey participants generally identified as more left-leaning on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, respondents on both sides of the political spectrum said they felt alienated.
In Jewish spaces, some respondents felt they were assumed to be more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause because of their race. Meanwhile, in progressive spaces, some Black Jews felt they were assumed to be Zionist because of their Jewishness.
“I do feel some kind of internalizing shame where I am more careful around the ways that I share my Jewishness in non-Jewish spaces,” one survey respondent wrote. “I resent the ways that Zionism is conflated with Jewishness, and the ways I have to extricate [or] preface that.”
According to Leo Ferguson, a member of the Black Jewish Liberation Collective’s steering committee, another troubling post–Oct. 7 trend is that people who voice criticism of Israel are increasingly labeled “fake Jews.” Black Jews often already face that accusation because of their race — and adding political litmus tests, he said, only intensifies the problem.
“What I have witnessed is more scrutiny of Black Jews. There is an ongoing question as to whether or not we will stand up and be ‘real Jews’ which means aligning with whoever’s politics is judging us,” one survey participant wrote.
Compounding these trends, some Jewish institutions have shifted away from the idea that advocating for a broad range of minority groups also benefits Jews, focusing instead on antisemitism linked to Israel. Just last month, the Anti-Defamation League entirely removed from the “What We Do” page of its website a section called “Protect Civil Rights” amid threats from the Trump administration. Although that change occurred after the survey was conducted, some respondents already saw the trend emerging.
“The way in which much of [the] Jewish community has turned from barely doing antiracism work wholly toward Israel and self-protection is so discouraging, especially as the racism within Jewish community is so severe,” one survey respondent wrote.
The survey offers recommendations based on the survey’s findings, including welcoming ideological diversity in Jewish spaces; having a time and place for Israel discourse, rather than letting it “bleed into all aspects of Jewish life”; and maintaining connections between Black and Jewish advocacy groups even if they disagree on issues surrounding conflict in Gaza.
“The discussion around Israel Palestine has taken up so much of the oxygen that it has made it impossible to then also talk about things like racial justice,” Ferguson said.
The post Some Black Jews feel more ostracized from Jewish communities post-Oct. 7, survey finds appeared first on The Forward.
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Hasan Piker Bashed Gal Gadot in Villainous ‘Variety’ Feature
Hasan Piker. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
In case you missed it, The New York Times recently did a fawning profile on popular Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, in which it mentioned, only in passing, that he once said America deserved 9/11. The article didn’t mention that Piker said he supported Hezbollah or that he took every chance to vilify Israel. It didn’t mention that he interviewed someone who he said was a member of the Houthis, only to later say he wasn’t.
Now comes an article in Variety by Tatiana Siegel, who uncritically lets Piker says his statement about 9/11 was about “blowback” and doesn’t push any further, accepting this nonsense that his own words were “weaponized” against him.
Siegel is more interested in writing that Piker is 6’4″, muscular, and plays basketball, instead of writing about how he interviewed a Houthi and vibed with him. Why get into any of that stuff? It’s much more important for Siegel to repeat a line from the Times article, as if it was her own, that Piker could be a possible answer to when the left-wing will find its own Joe Rogan. Maybe if they repeat it, suddenly Piker will be the next Joe Rogan!
Siegel tries to cast Piker as a moderate, because he disagrees with the insane conspiracy theory that Israel killed Charlie Kirk.
Siegel also interviews Taylor Lorenz. Yes Lorenz, the fool who said she felt joy when she heard news of the murder of United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson. Lorenz, who in televised interviews has said she thinks Piker is hot, and says the entire Internet has been weaponized against him. I doubt she’d be so quick to say this if Piker was unattractive.
Of course, Siegel is uncritical of Piker for saying that Amy Schumer should be cancelled, though she at least points out he falsely attributes a statement to Schumer that she never made.
But the kicker is Piker’s disdain for Gal Gadot, who has been a very vocal supporter of Israel. Piker likes his Jews quiet and embarrassed. He calls Gadot a “dogs**t actress” and complains of her normalizing Israel. I don’t remember Piker being a film critic — and of course no one talks about how Piker normalizes antisemitism. Good thing they got a writer with a Jewish-sounding last name to write a puff piece.
As Norman Finkelstein said when speaking about what Zohran Mamdani needed to do to fight off charges of antisemitism (which of course Finkelstein thought were fake) — people like this need to find Jews to do the “dirty work.”
Jewish actress Natalie Portman is okay, according to Piker, because she never served in the IDF. The Jewish actor who plays Superman is fine, because he’s not pro-Israel from what he’s seen. Who’s the Jewish influencer who says which Muslim actors are okay to watch in movies or not?
Oh, that’s right, there is none, as that would be seen as Islamophobic. But Piker gets another free pass to spew his hatred.
The article could not be complete without a little “Jews control the media” implication, as Piker criticizes Bari Weiss because she represents everything he “despises about access journalism.” Of course, Siegel doesn’t bother to mention that Piker got his career from his uncle, Cenk Uygur, founder of the Young Turks, one of the most noteworthy left-wing YouTube channels, for which Piker used to work. And there’s no mention of Weiss’ courage to quit the New York Times to start The Free Press. Because when Jews succeed, it can’t have anything to do with merit — it must be that they all help each other!
The writer could have asked about the Piker controversy surrounding his dog for which he’s received immense criticism, but I wasn’t shocked she didn’t mention it. That might get in the way of him being the next Joe Rogan!
The article ends with Piker saying he doesn’t have bodyguards, citing Fidel Castro who claimed to have a moral vest.
The article is good for only one thing — pointing out how much the media hates the Jews.
The author is a writer based in New York.
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After Mamdani’s Win, What’s Next for ‘Globalize the Intifada’?
US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) speaks at a press conference with activists calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in front of the Capitol in Washington, DC, Dec. 14, 2023. Photo: Annabelle Gordon / CNP/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Minnesota Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar skipped spending time with her constituents and instead opted to use the recent 43-day government shutdown to meet with Malcolm Jallow, a virulent Jew-hating Minister of the Swedish Parliament.
Last week, Jallow posted a picture on his Instagram page of himself posing with Omar, and also anti-Zionist political commentator Mehdi Hassan.
Omar appears beaming while cozying up to Jallow, who is donning a keffiyeh-like scarf with an image depicting the complete erasure of Israel and a Palestinian State as its replacement.
In his lengthy Instagram post, Jallow gushed over his time with Omar and Hassan, writing that “every time we come together, sharing experiences, strategies and visions, we are not just building movements, we are building the future.”
The Congresswoman’s choice to meet with a radical antisemite like Jallow reflects a deliberate choice by the antisemitic politician to leverage radical Democrat Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral victory earlier that week and assist in accelerating the anti-Jewish animus streaming through the Western world.
Mamdani’s success gifts Omar the political cover to learn from and replicate the Gambian-born Jallow’s success in eroding Sweden’s historic reputation as a safe and peaceful country.
Less than a week following the hard left capture of New York City, Omar’s gleeful appearance before a picture showing the elimination of Israel also serves as an ominous warning that open hostility toward Israel is no longer viewed as a political liability within the Democratic Party orbit.
In fact, it’s a position that may now be considered an asset.
The anti-Israel Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) recently boasted that it secured a “record-breaking 42 election wins.”
Armed with its Political Action Committee (PAC), the Unity and Justice Fund, the Muslim-Brotherhood aligned group, which blamed Israel for the October 7 massacre, is helping usher a new cohort of radical ideologues into the American political system.
Mamdani’s fiery address to supporters following his win was empty of humility and lacked patriotism. The word “America” was not mentioned once. For her part, Omar devotes most of her time extolling the virtues of multiculturalism and embracing a radical agenda that is not in line with the vast majority of Americans.
Despite the two Muslim foreign-born policymakers attaining extraordinary professional success, their behavior seethes with contempt for their adopted homeland. They both espouse a broader, anti-Western civilizational ethos.
Helping drive the antisemitic measures in Congress is Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who led 20 colleagues in trying to put the US House of Representatives on record last Friday as condemning Israel’s actions as “genocide.”
Mamdani has also pointedly shared that pro-Israel Democrats are not welcome in his coalition. The incoming mayor’s hatred of the Jewish State dictated his only legislative priority while serving in the State Assembly when the young socialist introduced the “Not on our dime!” act, a bill that seeks to revoke the tax-exempt status for pro-Israel charities.
All of these measures only give more power to anti-Israel activists like Linda Sarsour.
The Mamdani surrogate, who has pledged to help remove pro-Israel Democrats from power, is linked to the controversial charity, The Arab American Association of New York (AAANY), a group that’s no doubt eagerly anticipating funding beyond the nearly four million dollars it was granted from New York State and city over a period of seven years, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
The victory of Zohran Mamdani and Omar’s subsequent meeting with Jallow are poignant reminders that “Globalizing the Intifada” need not require bullets or bombs, but can begin with dangerous politicians who gain footholds in American cities. Their crowning achievement will be spreading their influence across our nation, chipping away at America’s place as a safe haven for Jews and all groups, and perhaps ultimately rendering our nation uninhabitable for Jewish Americans.
Irit Tratt is a writer who lives in New York. Follow her on X @Irit_Tratt.