Northwestern has received approximately $737 million from the Qatari government in connection with NU-Q operations
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Mung Chiang, incoming president of Northwestern University, during the US Chamber of Commerce's Global Aerospace Summit in Washington, DC, on Sept. 10, 2025.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleCritics of Qatari funding of American universities are watching Northwestern University’s incoming president to see how he handles the school’s upcoming contract renewal for its satellite campus in Doha, Qatar’s capital.
Northwestern’s contract to operate its campus in Qatar (NU-Q) is set to expire at the end of the 2027–2028 academic year. In an interview published May 11 with The Daily Northwestern, the university’s student newspaper, interim President Henry Bienen said the NU-Q review process is “ongoing” and would be left up to the university’s new leadership.
“So I was planning to be in Doha for commencement, and a set of events made it hard for me to do it,” said Bienen, referring to the U.S.’ war with Iran. Bienen served as Northwestern president from 1995-2009 and assumed the role of interim university president in September. He established Northwestern’s Qatar campus in 2008, which has faced scrutiny for faculty ties to Hamas.
“The provost-elect is there now. … [we] are talking about Qatar a lot, and I think it’s fair to say Qatar is very eager that we renew the relationship. So that’s a process of discussion back and forth. And that process is ongoing,” said Bienen. The Doha campus is currently remote, as a security precaution following Iranian missile strikes on the Gulf country.
“Of course, Qatar is a board decision,” continued Bienen. “I have my ideas. I’m positive about the relationship, frankly. I do think at the end of the day, it’s a board issue, and a new president has to sign off on this one. But the conversations are going on. But the wild card is obvious in this fraught area. … There’s just a lot of variables, and nobody can predict with any certainty what the next month will bring, much less the next year.”
On Monday, Northwestern announced the appointment of Mung Chiang as the school’s new president. Members of the Jewish community expressed optimism that Chiang — who assumes the role on July 1 — will leverage the supportive environment he fostered for Jewish students at Purdue University to help combat the antisemitism seen at Northwestern in recent years.
However, questions remain regarding how Chiang will address NU-Q and shape the long-term trajectories of both the Doha and Evanston, Ill., campuses.
The Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern, a group of Northwestern students, faculty, parents and alumni, said in a statement to Jewish Insider that it is “hopeful that President-elect Chiang can help lead a serious, transparent, and institutionally credible review of Northwestern University’s relationship with Northwestern University in Qatar” amid “the increasing federal, congressional, donor and public scrutiny surrounding NU-Q.”
CAAN asserted that Bienen “is materially conflicted with respect to any decision-making process concerning NU-Q and therefore should not serve as the principal decision-maker regarding the future of the Qatar campus. Publicly available disclosures show that Dr. Bienen has served on the advisory board of the Qatar Foundation, the entity that funds and oversees NU-Q.”
Among CAAN’s concerns include “that NU-Q is deeply integrated with Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and communications programs.”
“Northwestern has used Qatar Foundation funding to support journalism and communications education through NU-Q, while congressional investigators and outside watchdogs have increasingly questioned whether partnerships involving Al Jazeera and Qatar-backed media ecosystems create risks relating to editorial independence, ideological influence, and institutional neutrality,” CAAN said.
Northwestern has received approximately $737 million from the Qatari government in connection with NU-Q operations, including annual payments reportedly totaling approximately $70 million per year to sustain the campus, according to CAAN.
Brandy Shufutinsky, director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Program on Education and National Security, pointed to Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative, a multiyear research project on Islamophobia, which reportedly requires Qatari approval for speakers and programming.
“I’m wondering if Northwestern’s campus in Doha — and even their main campus — [would] have a similar type program where they’re basically handing over final say to the [Qatari] government,” Shufutinsky told JI.
Last year, the House Committee on Education and Workforce released transcripts of an interview with former Northwestern President Michael Schill on the school’s relationship with Qatar. Committee staff noted during the interview that a section of Northwestern’s agreement with the Qatar Foundation, which funds Northwestern’s satellite campus, legally binds staff and students to follow the country’s laws and “social customs.”
“NU, NU-Q, and their respective employees, students, faculty, families, contractors and agents, shall be subject to the applicable laws and regulations of the State of Qatar, and shall respect the cultural, religious and social customs of the State of Qatar,” the agreement reads.
Shufutinsky said she would like to see Chiang address “what does that mean related to gender segregation and women’s rights, considering Qatar is the last Gulf nation to require unmarried women [under age 25] to have a male companion or get male approval if they want to travel.”
“Those values are counter to American social values, customs and norms,” said Shufutinsky. “What does that mean for the girls and women who are studying and teaching on that campus?”
Northwestern did not respond to a request for comment from JI asking if Chiang has indicated his plans for NU-Q.
The questions around contract renewal come as the Iran war is damaging Qatar’s once booming economy, particularly in the oil and gas sector. The country, one of the world’s wealthiest nations, could need to reevaluate foreign partnerships to cut spending.
A report released Tuesday shows dozens of established American universities are also nearing financial trouble.
That leads to a bigger question, said Shufutinsky. “Are these universities becoming so dependent on foreign dollars that they are unable to function, and does that mean they’re going to be willing to turn a blind eye to things like human rights abuses?”
FDD’s Rich Goldberg, a Northwestern alum: ‘Purdue and Chiang have strong reputations for defending freedom of expression while not tolerating antisemitism’
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Mung Chiang, then-president of Purdue University, speaks during the Chamber of Commerce's Global Aerospace Summit in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 10, 2025.
Northwestern University’s Jewish community is celebrating the appointment of Mung Chiang as the school’s new president, optimistic that the supportive environment he fostered for Jewish students during his tenure as president of Purdue University will help combat the antisemitism seen at Northwestern in recent years.
“Purdue and Chiang have strong reputations for defending freedom of expression while not tolerating antisemitism,” Rich Goldberg, a senior advisor at Foundation for Defense of Democracies who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern, told Jewish Insider.
But Goldberg added that Chiang, who has been president of Purdue since January 2023, has enjoyed “a university culture and state leadership that looks very different from what he will find in Evanston, Illinois.” Under Chiang’s leadership, Purdue avoided much of the campus unrest seen at other schools following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks.
The appointment comes as Northwestern navigates the fallout from a turbulent chapter with antisemitism in recent years.
In November, the Illinois school reached a $75 million settlement with the Trump administration to restore federal funding that was frozen months earlier over allegations that administrators failed to address campus antisemitism.
Chiang, who assumes the role on July 1, “will need a new board chairman and other fresh faces who will have his back to fully enforce the federal settlement,” said Goldberg.
Michael Schill, Northwestern’s former president, announced his resignation last summer amid a series of controversies during his brief tenure.
When anti-Israel encampments emerged on college campuses across the country in spring 2024, Schill, who is Jewish, became the first university president to strike a deal with demonstrators. The deal allowed the students to avoid disciplinary action taken and acceded to several demands of the protesters, which drew strong condemnation from many Jewish leaders at the time.
In an August interview with the House Committee on Education and Workforce, Schill sounded unfazed to hear that a Palestinian professor he hired as part of the deal with encampment protesters had once met with slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
At the time of Schill’s resignation, Jewish alumni expressed optimism that his departure, and the House interview being made public, would lead Northwestern leaders to make reforms. Henry Bienen, who served as Northwestern president from 1995-2009, assumed the role of interim university president in September. Bienen previously established Northwestern’s Qatar campus, which has faced scrutiny for faculty ties to Hamas.
Northwestern Hillel said it “congratulates Northwestern University on the appointment of Mung Chiang as the University’s next president. We are deeply grateful to Interim President Henry Bienen for his leadership and partnership, and we’re especially appreciative of his support for students and campus life during this period of transition.”
Hillel at Purdue University declined to comment on Chiang’s record with the Jewish community.
The Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern, a coalition of Northwestern students, faculty, parents and alumni, said in a statement that it “welcomes President-elect Chiang at a pivotal moment for Northwestern and higher education more broadly.”
Chiang “arrives with a reputation for academic excellence, technological innovation, institutional leadership, and support for free expression and open inquiry,” said CAAN.
CAAN called on Northwestern’s new leadership to “ensure equal treatment and civil rights protections for Jewish, Israeli, Zionist students and faculty” and to “reinforce academic neutrality and viewpoint diversity.”
At the same time, it said, “Northwestern’s challenges are significant and will require sustained leadership, transparency, and institutional courage. Federal scrutiny, governance failures, campus polarization, and concerns involving antisemitism did not emerge overnight, and meaningful reform will require more than symbolic change.”
Biss reportedly told the committee ‘the great majority of his Jewish friends in the Northwestern community had no concerns,’ contrary to comments from Jewish community members and groups
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Evanston, Ill. Mayor Daniel Biss on March 6, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois.
In a briefing for the House Education & Workforce Committee on his response to the anti-Israel protest encampment at Northwestern University in 2024, Evanston, Ill., Mayor Daniel Biss “severely downplayed” the situation on that campus and antisemitism across the country, the committee said.
The committee asked Biss, who is a congressional candidate in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), to brief them on his decision to withhold Evanston police support from Northwestern University when requested by the school to help clear the encampment.
The lack of external law enforcement support prompted Northwestern to make a deal, widely criticized in the Jewish community, with the encampment members to disband voluntarily, according to internal Northwestern communications released by the committee.
“In his briefing with the Committee today, Mr. Biss severely downplayed antisemitism at Northwestern after October 7th. He told the Committee that the great majority of his Jewish friends in the Northwestern community had no concerns about it,” a committee spokesperson told Jewish Insider.
That’s at odds with comments from Jewish Northwestern community members and local Jewish groups about the encampment.
“He further stated that Northwestern should not have received an F on the Anti-Defamation League’s college report card. He even accused the Committee of alarmism that is not warranted by the facts when it comes to antisemitism at the university after the October 7th attacks,” the spokesperson continued. “The countless Jewish Northwestern students, faculty, and community members that the Committee has interviewed would say otherwise.”
The school reached an agreement with the Department of Justice last year, paying $75 million and making policy changes to address antisemitism on its campus.
Biss, meanwhile, has dismissed the committee’s questioning of him as a smear campaign orchestrated by AIPAC and one of his primary opponents, state Sen. Laura Fine, to hurt his congressional campaign.
“From the start, this ‘briefing’ was a flimsy attempt to weaponize the very real threat of antisemitism to attack me and support my opponent. It failed,” Biss said in a statement.
“I’m proud of my record of protecting peaceful protest and combating antisemitism, including my decision to decline the unnecessary and undemocratic request to clear the Northwestern encampment in 2024. As the Trump administration increasingly attacks our fundamental democratic rights, it’s more important than ever to back our commitment to peaceful protest with action. I hope the committee learned something today.”
Biss’ campaign also noted that only House staff attended the briefing, rather than lawmakers themselves.
Biss, who is running for Congress, accused Walberg in response of attempting to sabotage his primary campaign at the behest of AIPAC
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Evanston, Ill. Mayor Daniel Biss on March 6, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois.
Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), the chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, accused Evanston, Ill., Mayor Daniel Biss on Wednesday of blocking city police from assisting Northwestern University in responding to the 2024 anti-Israel encampment on the campus protesting the war in Gaza — against the school’s request.
Biss, who is running in a competitive race for an open Illinois House seat, pushed back, accusing Walberg of attempting to sabotage his primary campaign at the behest of AIPAC.
“I write with grave concern regarding your failure to protect Jewish students at Northwestern University by refusing to give the university the police support it desperately needed to clear its violent and antisemitic encampment in April 2024,” Walberg said in a letter to Biss. “Just recently you touted this failure in a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, describing the individuals at the encampment as ‘peaceful.’”
Walberg also released internal communications by top Northwestern officials, including former President Michael Schill, about their communications with Biss and efforts to clear the encampment and conduct arrests.
Schill indicated to colleagues that more police would be needed than the school had available to successfully clear the encampment, but the school had to halt plans to do so after Biss communicated to the school that his position on the situation would not change.
Trustee Michael J. Sacks said in one message to Schill, “I know Biss well. If the winds blow in the wrong way he will throw you under the bus. No hesitation.”
Schill told other colleagues that Sacks and another trustee had said that Biss was untrustworthy and that Sacks had told him in a phone call that Biss was likely to publicize his refusal to provide police support “to shore up his progressive credentials.”
Northwestern, which is located in Evanston, ultimately signed a deal with student leaders of the encampment, acceding to several of the demonstrators’ demands in exchange for ending the encampment.
Walberg further denounced Biss for criticizing an agreement between Northwestern and the federal government. He requested that Biss brief the committee “on, in your words, ‘local law-enforcement coordination’ when it comes to antisemitic activity on college campuses in Evanston.”
Biss fired back, accusing Walberg of doing the bidding of AIPAC, which has formally taken no position in his primary race.
“Rep. Walberg’s inquiry is nothing more than a baseless political attack fueled by his top political patron, AIPAC,” Biss said in a statement. “It’s no coincidence that Rep. Walberg’s letter arrived just eight days before the beginning of early voting in the March primary election. They’re playing cheap political games in service to AIPAC’s right wing agenda. It is shameful.”
Biss added in a separate statement on X, “Trump and his Republican allies are attacking me for defending free speech. Let’s be clear: the GOP is trying to criminalize dissent and pressure local officials to silence peaceful protest. I won’t let that happen in our communities.”
Ian Hurd’s appointment to the search committee drew criticism from some of the school’s Jewish alumni
Vincent Alban for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. on Saturday, October 5, 2024.
A Northwestern University professor who supported the anti-Israel encampment on the Evanston, Ill., campus and is married to the founder of the university’s chapter of Educators for Justice in Palestine was tapped to join a new presidential search committee, the school announced last week.
Ian Hurd, a professor of political science and president of the faculty senate at Northwestern University, is listed on Northwestern’s website as an “expert on the Middle East.” As Faculty Senate president, Hurd has played an influential role in shaping faculty responses to campus protests, academic freedom disputes and university governance questions.
During this period, faculty leadership — including the Senate — was widely criticized by Jewish students, parents and advocacy groups for failing to condemn antisemitic conduct, for blurring distinctions between political speech and discriminatory harassment and for prioritizing faculty and activist concerns over student safety and civil rights compliance.
The search committee is tasked with making a recommendation to the board of trustees for selecting the school’s next president. The search comes following President Michael Schill’s resignation in September, amid widespread controversy over the school’s handling of antisemitism during his tenure.
During the anti-Israel encampment that overtook Northwestern’s campus in April 2024 — in which Jewish students were surrounded by mobs and told to “go back to Germany and get gassed” — Hurd signed an open letter with 171 faculty members backing the encampment.
Schill was heavily scrutinized by Jewish leaders for overseeing the Deering Meadow agreement, a controversial pact made with anti-Israel encampment participants in the spring of 2024, that allowed students to protest the war in Gaza until the end of the school year so long as tents were removed, and encouraged employers not to rescind job offers for student protesters. The document also allowed students to weigh in on university investments — a major concession for students who had demanded the university divest from Israel.
The Illinois private university agreed to end its commitment to the agreement last month as part of a $75 million settlement with the federal government to restore federal funding that was frozen earlier this year over allegations that administrators failed to address campus antisemitism.
Hurd praised Schill’s capitulation to demonstrators in a May 2024 interview with the Daily Northwestern, saying he was “really proud of how NU handled the situation.”
Hurd’s wife, Elizabeth Shankman Hurd, who is also a professor of political science at Northwestern, was among the founders of the NU chapter of Educators for Justice in Palestine, a faculty-staff network established in December 2023 aligned with NU Students for Justice in Palestine. Shankman Hurd signed the October 2023 faculty letter that downplayed the Hamas attacks in Israel and also helped circulate multiple faculty statements opposing Northwestern’s antisemitism task force, even as Jewish students reported harassment and exclusion from campus spaces.
Hurd’s appointment to the search committee drew criticism from some of the school’s Jewish alumni. “The antisemitic encampment at Northwestern occurred in April 2024, immediately before Ian Hurd was elevated into senior faculty leadership. At the time, Hurd was a leading figure in the Faculty Senate and publicly defended the administration’s response,” Michael Teplitsky, president of the Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern and an alum of the school, told Jewish Insider.
“That sequence is not incidental — it is disqualifying,” continued Teplitsky. “Northwestern is under federal civil rights scrutiny precisely because its leadership normalized antisemitic conduct and chose negotiation over enforcement. Elevating a faculty leader who publicly endorsed that approach into a gatekeeping role for selecting the next president signals continuity, not reform. It raises profound concerns about judgment, civil rights enforcement, and whether the university is capable of the governance reset that Jewish student safety and federal compliance now plainly require.”
Hurd “brings an obvious bias to this committee, likely put in there as the most respectable proxy for the anti-Zionist faculty cohort,” Rich Goldberg, a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern, told JI.
“His decision to sign the faculty letter [in support of] the pro-Hamas encampment should be disqualifying. Now is certainly the time to double down on accountability for what Northwestern has agreed to, not pretend everything is rosy because of [the settlement with the Trump administration] and [former President Michael] Schill’s resignation,” said Goldberg.
Hurd did not respond to a request for comment from JI on Monday.
Plus, Steve Israel's new spy thriller
(Brian Lawless/PA Images via Getty Images)
(left to right) Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Brian McEnery and Tanaiste Simon Harris after President Catherine Connolly was inaugurated as Ireland's 10th president at Dublin Castle. Tuesday November 11, 2025.
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we interview former Rep. Steve Israel about his new spy thriller and report on Northwestern University’s $75 million settlement with the Trump administration. We talk to the parents of Yaron Lischinsky about the slain Israeli Embassy staffer’s life and legacy, and cover recent victories for Irish Jews and Israel supporters in the face of an effort to remove the name of Chaim Herzog from a Dublin park, as well as the shelving of a bill to boycott Israeli products made in the West Bank. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sen. Cory Booker, Segev Kalfon and Rabbi Brent Chaim Spodek.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are traveling to Moscow today ahead of their meeting tomorrow with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Witkoff and Kushner, joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, met yesterday in Miami with senior aides to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
- Pope Leo XIV is in Lebanon this week as part of his first international trip since becoming pontiff. He first traveled to Turkey last week, where he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as the head of the country’s Jewish community.
- Israel Defense Tech Week kicked off this morning at Tel Aviv University. Senior Pentagon official Mike Dodd; Adm. (ret.) Mike Rogers, a former director of the National Security Agency; and Sequoia Capital’s Shaun Maguire are among the two-day conference’s featured speakers.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV
Ireland has long been competing for the title of most anti-Israel country in the West, and in recent years, the local Jewish community has expressed fears that the country has become systemically antisemitic. Calls to boycott Israel have permeated the political mainstream; the Emerald Isle’s under 3,000 Jews face hostility in schools and workplaces, and physical harassment has increased in recent years. Pleas to the former president not to politicize International Holocaust Memorial Day by making it another occasion to accuse Israel of war crimes fell on deaf ears; Ireland has since elected a president who is even more stridently opposed to the Jewish state.
Yet, Irish Jews and supporters of Israel notched two victories on Sunday.
Ireland is pulling its “Occupied Territories Bill” to boycott Israeli products from the West Bank in light of a “changed political climate” as a result of the ceasefire in Gaza, the Irish Mail on Sunday reported. The legislation faced legal challenges due to its violation of European Union trade rules, and, as several members of Congress pointed out, could run afoul of U.S. states’ laws penalizing those who boycott Israel and damage relations between Washington and Dublin.
In addition, following an uproar started by the local Jewish community that went global, leading Israel’s leadership and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to sound the alarm, pressuring Ireland’s government, a proposal to remove sixth Israeli President Chaim Herzog’s name from a public park and replace it with a name related to Palestinians was taken off of Dublin City Council’s agenda.
Herzog, father of current Israeli President Isaac Herzog, was born in Belfast and grew up in Dublin. He was Israeli ambassador to the U.N. — famously tearing up its “Zionism is racism” resolution — before serving as president in 1983-1993. The park in Dublin was named after Herzog in 1995, to coincide with the 3,000th anniversary of Jerusalem’s establishment. It is adjacent to Ireland’s only Jewish school and close to major Orthodox and Progressive synagogues.
The current President Herzog, his brother, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Graham and others spoke out, saying “Ireland, once home to a proud, thriving Jewish community, has become the scene of raging antisemitism.”
Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin chimed in soon after, expressing concern that the name change would be seen as antisemitic, and hours later, it was no longer on Dublin City Council’s agenda.
PARDON PLEA
Netanyahu asks Herzog for pardon amid ongoing corruption trial
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday asked President Isaac Herzog to pardon him, six years after Netanyahu was indicted for fraud, breach of trust and bribery and as his yearslong trial continues to play out in Israeli court, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. Among the reasons Netanyahu cited for requesting the pardon, in a concurrent video statement, was “the requests from President Trump to the president of Israel, so I can work together with him as quickly as possible to promote the necessary shared interests between the U.S. and Israel in a window of opportunity that I doubt will return.”
Next steps: Netanyahu’s attorney, Amit Hadad, sent Herzog’s office a 111-page file of details of the trial, including a letter from the prime minister. Herzog’s office passed Netanyahu’s request to the Justice Ministry’s Pardons Department, which will send its opinions to the legal advisor of the Office of the President, who will then add her opinion before sending them to Herzog. A source in Herzog’s office told JI that the process may take weeks and the president will rely heavily on the opinions he receives.
BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS
Six months after Yaron Lischinsky’s murder, his parents reflect on Israeli Embassy staffer’s life and legacy
Six months after the death of their son, Yaron Lischinsky, and his girlfriend, Sarah Milgrim — both Israeli Embassy employees — in a shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum, Daniel and Ruth Lischinsky visited Washington last week, meeting with senior administration officials and visiting the sites where their son lived, worked and, ultimately, died. Speaking to Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod during their time in the U.S. capital, the pair reflected on their son’s life and legacy.
A son’s legacy: “He was a peacemaker. He tried [to make] people understand one [another], talking with the other and not fighting. He was a big fan of the Abraham Accords and he was a peacemaker. He knew that through diplomacy he can reach and he can make achievements,” Daniel Lischinsky said. Ruth Lischinsky said she’s been struck by the number of people that knew her son in Washington.
CAMPUS BEAT
Jewish leaders cautiously optimistic over Northwestern deal with Trump administration
Jewish leaders with ties to Northwestern University are cautiously celebrating a $75 million settlement reached on Friday with the Trump administration to restore federal funding that was frozen earlier this year over allegations that administrators failed to address campus antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
What it means: Under the agreement — which will restore at least $790 million in funding that was frozen in April — the Illinois private university agreed to end its commitment to the Deering Meadow agreement, a controversial pact made with anti-Israel encampment participants in the spring of 2024. The agreement allowed students to protest the war in Gaza until the end of the school year so long as tents were removed and encouraged employers not to rescind job offers for student protesters. The document also allowed students to weigh in on university investments — a major concession for students who had demanded the university divest from Israel. The school’s settlement with the Department of Justice also stipulates that Northwestern commit to “clear policies and procedures” around demonstrations, protests and other “expressive activities” and implement mandatory antisemitism training for all students, faculty and staff.
BOOKSHELF
Former Rep. Steve Israel pens Einstein-focused spy thriller set against backdrop of U.S. pro-Nazi movement
In his latest novel, former Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) takes readers through a tense spy thriller, with famed physicist Albert Einstein at its center, set against the backdrop of the pro-Nazi movement in America in 1939, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Political moment: Published last week, The Einstein Conspiracy is a fictionalized account of true events, in which the Nazis targeted Albert Einstein to prevent him from helping the United States build an atomic bomb. “The backdrop is the chilling and widespread pro-Nazi movement across America in 1939,” Israel explained to JI. “There was a [Nazi] rally at Madison Square Garden in February 1939 that attracted 20,000 people. On Long Island is a community that used to be known as Camp Siegfried, where the streets were named after Adolf Hitler, Goebbels and Goering. So I’m trying in the book to remind Americans of how close we could have come to staying out of World War II.”
Worthy Reads
Penny Wise: In The Washington Post, philanthropist and Kind founder Daniel Lubetzky considers the overlap in Jewish and American values as he reflects on the rise in global antisemitism. “My maternal grandfather — who fled pogroms in Lithuania and landed on the shores of northern Mexico, where he became a successful cattle rancher — taught his grandchildren about humility and resourcefulness. He used to say, in Spanish, ‘A man who is too arrogant to pick up a penny is not worth a penny.’ The idea harbored by some that picking up a penny is beneath them, and is disgusting in others, isn’t just bad for Jews. Its manifestation today seems to reflect a cultural crisis marked by economic anxiety, frustration and a growing rejection of the very values that have long been the foundation of the American Dream. The crisis has been marked by the emergence of a victim-oppressor mindset; those who feel left behind often believe that they have no agency, and it is all too easy to deflect responsibility onto convenient scapegoats — including those perennial targets, the Jews.” [WashPost]
Qatar Ready For Its Close-up: Variety’s Nick Vivarelli looks at the effort by Qatar to break into Hollywood amid the backdrop of last week’s Doha Film Festival, which kicked off featuring “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” about a Palestinian girl killed in Gaza. “‘We are building the foundations of a world class [film and TV] ecosystem with new infrastructure, production facilities and post-production capabilities supported by vast technology, and data analytics,’ said Hassan Al Thawadi, the Qatari lawyer who oversaw the 2022 World Cup. He is now leading The Qatar Film Committee, an official body that is part of the Media City Qatar hub tasked with driving growth of the country’s entertainment industry. But Al Thawadi made it clear that Hollywood should not be expecting any handouts from Qatar. ‘This agreement is about more than financing films,’ he said, after announcing the relatively modest pact with Neon that involves six to 10 feature films and shorts over a four-year period that Neon will co-finance and distribute. ‘It’s about creating a new platform for Arabic and regional storytelling, ensuring that stories from Qatar and the wider Arab world are seen, celebrated, and shared globally.’” [Variety]
Beyond Denominations: In Tablet, Rabbi Nolan Lebovitz argues that the post-Oct. 7 landscape provides an opportunity for the American Jewish community to find new ways of collaboration and partnership relating to Israel that go beyond the confines of denominations. “We should drop the focus on denominational labels and instead be willing to partner with anyone — Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and everything in-between — who is a Zionist. Now that the crisis of war is behind us, how do we together foster a new, inspiring Jewish identity of Oct. 8? We can invite rabbis from other regions and other denominations into our communities to speak and to teach to build bonds. We can also work together and pool resources in programming efforts. More communities can work together to share the messages of Zionist thinkers and authors, artists and musicians. Pooling our resources and ideas can help bridge the American Jewish connection with our Israeli brothers and sisters.” [Tablet]
Word on the Street
Rep. Don Davis (D-NC), a pro-Israel stalwart among House Democrats, will run for reelection in his redrawn 1st Congressional District, which under the new state congressional map was won by President Donald Trump by 11 points…
A federal judge ordered the University of Florida’s law school to reinstate a student who had authored a paper arguing that “Jews must be abolished by any means necessary”…
The New York Times interviews former Israeli hostage Segev Kalfon about the more than two years he spent in Hamas captivity in Gaza…
Actor Guy Pearce apologized for sharing antisemitic social media posts, including content that blamed Israel for the Sept. 11 attacks as well as the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk…
A tribunal affiliated with the U.K.’s National Health Service suspended for 15 months a British-Palestinian doctor who defended Hamas terrorists as “oppressed resistance fighters” and called Israelis “worse than Nazis”…
U.K. police arrested a man in connection with the deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur in which two congregants were killed…
A Nazi soldier photographed executing a Jewish man in the Ukrainian town of Vinnitsa was identified using artificial intelligence decades after the image, whose subjects were unknown, gained notoriety during the trial of Adolf Eichmann…
Wizz Air CEO Jozsef Varadi said the low-cost European carrier plans to open a hub in Israel in early 2026…
Israeli drone manufacturer Heven AeroTech raised $100 million in a round of funding, led by IonQ, that values the company at more than $1 billion…
Iran said it would boycott the 2026 World Cup draw this week in Washington after the U.S. denied visas to members of the soccer team’s delegation…
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who met with his Turkish counterpart in Tehran over the weekend, announced a $1.6 billion joint project with Ankara to build a rail link connecting Asia and Europe…
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized an Eswatini-flagged ship carrying oil and more than a dozen crew members as it transited through the Persian Gulf; the incident occurred less than a month after the IRGC seized a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel that originated in the United Arab Emirates…
The Wall Street Journal reports on Iran’s efforts to funnel money to Hezbollah through Dubai-based companies…
In The New York Times’ “Modern Love” column, Rabbi Brent Chaim Spodek reflects on his own marriage and the vows and promises made in his ketubah…
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Alexis Lewis, who is Jewish, married in a ceremony co-officiated by Rabbi Matthew Gewirtz, a longtime friend of Booker, in Washington over the weekend…
Tony Award-winning playwright Tom Stoppard, whose “Leopoldstadt” reflected his own life as an assimilated Englishman who did not learn of his family ties to the Holocaust until adulthood, died at 88… Israeli Maj. Gen. (res.) Dan Tolkowsky, who led the Israeli Air Force from 1953-1958 before going on to found the country’s first VC, died at 104… Tekserve co-founder David Lerner died at 72… Architect Robert A.M. Stern, who gained global acclaim for Manhattan’s 15 Central Park West, died at 86… Psychologist Paul Ekman, whose pioneering work on facial recognition was used by Hollywood animators and the FBI alike, died at 91…
Pic of the Day
Brig. Gen. (res.) Dr. Daniel Gold, head of the Israel Ministry of Defense Directorate of Defense Research & Development, spoke this morning at the International DefenseTech Summit at Tel Aviv University.
Birthdays
Singer, actress, comedian and author, Bette Midler turns 80…
Former CEO of Marvel Comics and chairman until 2023 of Disney’s Marvel Entertainment, Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter turns 83… Former EVP of Stuart Weitzman, Jane Weitzman… NYC-based real estate mogul, he owned the New York Post, served as chair of NYC’s MTA and is a noted car collector, Peter Kalikow turns 83… Executive producer of over 200 shows with more than 15,000 hours of television over a lengthy career, David E. Salzman turns 82… Comedian, actor and voice actor best known for his starring role in the animated sitcom “Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist,” Jonathan Katz turns 79… Former director of Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, he is now the director of Yashrut, Rabbi Daniel Landes turns 75… Former president of the American Jewish Committee and a board member at Israel Policy Forum, John M. Shapiro… British playwright, director and scriptwriter who has won many awards for his work on the stage, film and television, Stephen Poliakoff turns 73… U.S. senator (R-FL), Rick Scott turns 73… Newly appointed rabbi at Congregation Beth El of Windsor, Ontario, Rabbi Gordon Fuller… Former chair of the board of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, Isaac “Ike” Fisher turns 69… U.S. District Court judge in Oregon, Judge Michael H. Simon turns 69… U.S. senator (D-MI), Gary Peters turns 67… CEO of Oracle Corporation until a few months ago, now vice chair of the board, she also joined the board of the recently merged Paramount Skydance, Safra A. Catz turns 64… Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Cambridge, Raymond E. Goldstein turns 64… Pittsburgh-based entrepreneur, David Seldin… CEO at My Pest Pros in Fairfax County (Virginia), Brett Lieberman… Emmy Award-winning stand-up comedian, actress, producer and writer, Sarah Silverman turns 55… Rabbi of Shaarei Tefillah Congregation in Toronto, Rafi Lipner turns 52… Editorial lead in policy communications on the global affairs team at OpenAI, he is the author of a book on military suicides, Yochi J. Dreazen turns 49… Emmy and Peabody Award-winning director, comedian, producer, writer and actor, Akiva Schaffer turns 48… Marketing and communications executive, Natalie Ravitz… Editor-in-chief at Jewish Insider, Josh Kraushaar… Writer and television producer, including for NBC’s primetime series “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” Evan Daniel Susser turns 40… English teacher at Jerusalem’s Inbar School, the first secular, girls-only middle-high school in Israel, Shira Sacks… Senior advisor to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, David Milstein… Mexican musician influenced by Sephardic brass and klezmer styles, known by his mononym “Sotelúm,” Jorge Sotelo turns 36… Becky Weissman…
The deal reached last week ends the agreement made between the university and anti-Israel student protesters in the spring of 2024
Vincent Alban for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. on Saturday, October 5, 2024.
Jewish leaders with ties to Northwestern University are cautiously celebrating a $75 million settlement reached on Friday with the Trump administration to restore federal funding that was frozen earlier this year over allegations that administrators failed to address campus antisemitism.
Under the agreement — which will restore at least $790 million in funding that was frozen in April — the Illinois private university agreed to end its commitment to the Deering Meadow agreement, a controversial pact made with anti-Israel encampment participants in the spring of 2024. The agreement allowed students to protest the war in Gaza until the end of the school year so long as tents were removed and encouraged employers not to rescind job offers for student protesters. The document also allowed students to weigh in on university investments — a major concession for students who had demanded the university divest from Israel.
The school’s settlement with the Department of Justice also stipulates that Northwestern commit to “clear policies and procedures” around demonstrations, protests and other “expressive activities” and implement mandatory antisemitism training for all students, faculty and staff.
“This is a major victory in the administration’s efforts to root out institutionalized antisemitism on college campuses,” Rich Goldberg, a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern, told Jewish Insider. “The White House won a complete termination of the deal Northwestern had cut with its pro-Hamas encampment along with an important ban on disrupting the campus while wearing masks. Now comes implementation and enforcement to ensure life improves for Jewish students and the university’s antisemitic DEI infrastructure gets fully dismantled.”
Goldberg said he’d also like to see Northwestern “welcome Chabad on to campus as a recognized Jewish organization, which would send a strong next signal of the university changing direction.”
“The agreement contains important commitments, but Northwestern has an extensive record of failing to enforce its own policies,” the Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern said in a statement to JI. “The real test is whether the university finally delivers safety and equal treatment for Jewish students. We intend to monitor every step of implementation.”
“This agreement reflects progress, but Northwestern’s leadership still has a long way to go,” said CAAN, a coalition of Northwestern students, parents, alumni, faculty and trustees. “Jewish students have endured two years of escalating hostility, and trust will only be rebuilt through real enforcement.”
Michael Simon, executive director of Northwestern Hillel, told JI that in light of the deal, “We reiterate Northwestern Hillel’s unwavering commitment to working with University administrators, faculty and community partners to build on efforts underway to combat antisemitism and promote a campus climate that is safe and conducive to learning and exploration for everyone at Northwestern. The entire campus community has a critical role to play in countering antisemitism and all forms of hate.”
The settlement comes two months after Michael Schill, Northwestern’s former president, announced his resignation amid a series of controversies during his brief tenure. When anti-Israel encampments emerged on college campuses across the country in spring 2024, Schill, who is Jewish, became the first university president to strike a deal with demonstrators. The deal allowed the students to avoid disciplinary action taken and acceded to several demands of the protesters, which drew strong condemnation from many Jewish leaders at the time. In an August interview with the House Committee on Education and Workforce, Schill appeared unfazed to hear that a Palestinian professor he hired as part of the deal with encampment protesters had once met with slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
At the time of Schill’s resignation, Jewish alumni expressed optimism that his departure, and the House interview being made public, would lead Northwestern leaders to make reforms. Henry Bienen, who served as Northwestern president from 1995-2009, assumed the role of interim university president in September. Bienen previously established Northwestern’s Qatar campus, which has faced scrutiny for faculty ties to Hamas.
Bienen said in a video statement that under the settlement, the school would retain its academic freedom and autonomy from the federal government.
“There were several red lines that I, the board of trustees and university leadership refused to cross. I would not have signed anything that would have given the federal government any say in who we hire, what they teach, who we admit or what they study,” Bienen said. “Put simply, Northwestern runs Northwestern.”
Northwestern is required to pay $75 million to the federal government through 2028 without the use of donor funds. The figure is the second-highest fine any university has agreed to pay to the Trump administration so far, following Columbia University’s settlement of more than $200 million to the government in July. Several other elite institutions have reached deals with the Trump administration in recent months, including Columbia, Cornell University, Brown University, the University of Virginia and the University of Pennsylvania. Some of the settlements, such as Brown’s, have focused primarily on money, rather than campus reforms.
“Today’s settlement marks another victory in the Trump Administration’s fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Institutions that accept federal funds are obligated to follow civil rights law — we are grateful to Northwestern for negotiating this historic deal.”
The suit claims that Northwestern University violated students’ rights by requiring them to agree to the school’s code of conduct
Vincent Alban for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. on Saturday, October 5, 2024.
A new lawsuit filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Chicago branch last week alleges that Northwestern University violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by adopting time, place and manner restrictions on student protest and requiring students to watch an antisemitism training video.
The plaintiffs include Northwestern Graduate Workers for Palestine, a doctoral student who “is not Arab, Jewish, or Muslim, but publicly associates with these students” and a doctoral candidate of Syrian and Palestinian descent.
Title VI prohibits institutions that receive federal funding from discriminating based on a person’s race, color and national origin — understood to include both Arabs and Jews — though the lawsuit claims that “Antizionist Jews are also a cognizable ethnic group” under the statute. The suit also accuses the Chicago-area school of violating Title VI by discriminating against those who “associate with” Jewish and Arab students “who oppose or criticize Zionism.”
The suit, filed in federal court in Illinois, claims Northwestern violated students’ rights by requiring them to agree to the school’s code of conduct, which now incorporates the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, as well as mandatory bias training that includes a video on antisemitism created in collaboration with the Jewish United Fund, the city’s Jewish federation.
The training is required to be completed by Monday, or students will be prohibited from registering for classes for the winter term.
The plaintiffs claim that the mandate to watch the JUF video, which includes information on the ties between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, has “caused Arab individuals and those who support them injury in the form of emotional distress.” The two doctoral students, who are considered student employees of the university, also claim the training, which is required for their employment, violates the Illinois Worker Freedom of Speech Act.
A spokesperson for Northwestern declined to comment on the ongoing litigation. The university responded to the allegation in court filings that students must attest that they “have reviewed and agreed to abide by” the student code of conduct but “notably, the attestation does not require students to agree or enforce the substance or viewpoints expressed in the training. It merely confirms that they will comply with the university’s uniformly applicable policies — just as all students must typically do to maintain good standing.”
The suit further alleges that Northwestern implemented an “Intimidation Policy” in response to the disruptive anti-Israel encampment that overtook the university’s campus in May 2024 by now requiring “a reservation, advance notice, and a permit from the University’s administration” in order to table on university property and a permit to use devices that amplify sound, as well as limiting flyers posted outdoors to university bulletin boards.
Students participating in the encampment engaged in several instances of harassment and intimidation of Jewish students, which were detailed by the House Committee on Education and Workforce when it called then-President Michael Schill to appear before the committee. Schill negotiated with the encampment and acceded to several of the student leaders’ demands, including allowing students to weigh in on university investments, which earned the praise of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and drew condemnation from Jewish leaders.
The requested remedies of the suit include finding Northwestern’s use of the IHRA definition, which labels some criticism of Israel as antisemitic, to be illegal and prohibiting the school from using it and for emotional distress damages for the plaintiffs.
Michael Schill said no Northwestern students have been disciplined for anti-Israel behavior
Valerie Plesch for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Michael Schill, president of Northwestern University, before a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing, "Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos" on Capitol Hill on May 23, 2024.
Michael Schill, the Northwestern University president who announced his resignation last week amid widespread controversy over his tenure, appeared unfazed to hear that a Palestinian professor he hired as part of a deal with encampment protestors had once met with the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, an interview with the House Committee on Education and Workforce, released on Thursday, reveals.
In the Aug. 5 interview, which was released as a response to Schill’s resignation announcement on Thursday, House investigators pressed Schill on the hiring of Mkhaimar Abusada as a visiting associate professor of political science.
Abusada, who Schill described as “someone who is regularly quoted as an authority on Palestine governance and politics,” published a piece in Haaretz last year about his 2018 meeting with Sinwar.
“Hypothetically, if somebody, you know, 4 years, 5 years before Oct. 7 has met with someone who — and, I mean, I’m not sure — my guess is — I’ve never been to Gaza, but it’s a pretty small place, and that you are going to meet people and talk to people,” said Schill, who claimed to not be aware of that meeting when he hired Abusada but noted in the interview that the professor’s position had been extended to August 2026. “I don’t know whether a seasoned professor who is doing the politics of Gaza could avoid getting to know some of these people, or whether that would be not doing his job right.”
Schill, who will remain as president in an interim role until his successor is chosen, oversaw a period of antisemitic turmoil on the Chicago-area campus after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks and was accused of failing to respond in an adequate manner, leading some lawmakers to call for his resignation.
The 135-page interview transcript provides new, detailed information on Schill’s response to years of campus turbulence, including his controversial handling of a violent anti-Israel encampment in spring 2024 and the university’s close ties to Hamas-allied Qatar.
The interview comes as Northwestern is in talks with the Trump administration to restore $790 million in funding for the university that was pulled by the federal government over an alleged failure to protect Jewish students.
Jewish alumni expressed optimism that Schill’s resignation, and the interview being made public, would lead to Northwestern leaders making necessary reforms.
“Northwestern’s board needs to take control of the situation in a way they have declined to until now [and] clear out all other administrators who have been part of this culture of enabling antisemitism on campus,” Rich Goldberg, a senior advisor at Foundation for Defense of Democracies who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern, told Jewish Insider.
“Those who are negotiating on behalf of the Trump administration, now seeing this transcript, will need to review any additional information that’s come to light, additional questions that they might have for the university, see if this changes anything that’s been under negotiation to date, and with Schill stepping down, hopefully signaling the board of the university wanting to see real changes made,” Goldberg continued.
Michael Teplitsky, president of the Coalition Against Antisemitism At Northwestern, said that Abusada “should never have been at Northwestern.”
“There must be a massive turnaround and restructuring at the university and they have to make meaningful changes,” said Teplitsky.
When anti-Israel encampments emerged on college campuses across the country in spring 2024, Schill, who is Jewish, became the first university president to strike a deal with demonstrators. The deal included no disciplinary action taken against students and acceded to several demands of the protesters, which drew strong condemnation from many Jewish leaders. Among other concessions, Schill committed to hire two Palestinian professors, which would include Abusada, and offer full scholarships to five students from Gaza.
Schill acknowledged in the interview that — despite telling Congress that “discipline has been meted out to many of those students” who participated in the encampment and other antisemitic incidents on campus — no students had actually faced disciplinary action for anti-Israel activity on campus. Schill said that the university had reason to believe some demonstrators could be armed and claimed that university leadership had no option but to negotiate with the encampment organizers because they were dangerous. The university was afraid to send in the police to remove them, he said.
“We didn’t think our students were armed, but we didn’t know,” Schill told the House committee. “There was a suspicious tent off to the side, and we knew that our students were trying to avoid the people in that tent, and we didn’t know what was inside the tent. And so we were concerned about that.”
The released testimony also puts a spotlight on Northwestern Provost Kathleen Hagerty’s support for the encampment and BDS activism on campus, which Schill argued she may have viewed as a “teachable moment.”
In a series of exposed text messages, Hagerty wrote that “if the students really cared about actual divestment, then they need the patience to do the work to actually make it happen.”
In an April 27 text exchange with a professor, Hagerty wrote that for Northwestern to boycott Sabra, an Israeli hummus company that is sold at the university, it would “probably be pretty easy,” adding that she is “all for making a deal.”
Schill responded to the text messages by highlighting his support for the Jewish state. “I view Israel as our number one strategic partner in the world,” he said.
“I don’t think [Schill] is the only administrator that needs to go,” said Goldberg. “Clearly the provost needs to follow him out the door as someone who is also chiefly responsible for the culture of enabling antisemitism at the university and implementing the encampment appeasement.”
The interview also raised new questions around Northwestern’s relationship with Qatar. Schill said that students on Northwestern’s Qatar campus are exempted from completing the university’s mandatory antisemitism training and acknowledged several examples of professors on the Qatar campus engaging in extreme pro-terrorism and antisemitic activism and speech on social media.
He said that Northwestern’s contract with Qatar prevents it or its affiliates from criticizing the country. “NU, NU-Q, and their respective employees, students, faculty, families, contractors and agents, shall be subject to the applicable laws and regulations of the State of Qatar, and shall respect the cultural, religious and social customs of the State of Qatar,” said Schill. He said that Qatar has given Northwestern $737 million since 2008.
“The initial deal to put a campus out in Qatar was put together, it was in the era after 9/11,” Teplitsky told JI. “I think people had hopes and ambitions to build bridges in the Middle East, in Qatar. It had wonderful intentions. I think now looking back and looking at it specifically through the lens of Northwestern University… looking at it from a perspective of … values that Northwestern lists on its website, that relationship has not been a good one. It’s been one of failure.
Teplitsky continued, “Should Northwestern be registered, as long as they continue to have this campus, with the Department of Justice as a foreign agent? I believe that they should have to register as a foreign agent if they choose to continue to have this campus.”
Jewish Insider Senior Congressional Correspondent Marc Rod contributed reporting.
Committee Chair Tim Walberg wrote to Schill that the university has failed to meet its own commitments made at a committee hearing last year
Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images
(L-R) Mr. Michael Schill, President, Northwestern University, Dr. Jonathan Holloway, President, Rutgers University and Mr. Frederick Lawrence testify at a hearing called "Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos" before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Capitol Hill on May 23, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
House Education and Workforce Committee Chair Tim Walberg (R-MI) wrote to Northwestern University President Michael Schill on Monday summoning him to appear before the committee for a transcribed interview about alleged failures to protect Jewish students on the Illinois campus, nearly a year after Schill gave testimony at a committee hearing.
Walberg said Schill has failed to live up to his own commitments made at the May 23, 2024, hearing, where he pledged to take a series of steps to combat campus antisemitism, investigate incidents of antisemitic harassment and pursue disciplinary proceedings.
“Despite Northwestern’s claims to the contrary, the Committee has not seen your commitments to discipline, enforcement, and security come to satisfactory fruition,” Walberg wrote to Schill.
Walberg said that the committee has yet to receive documentation reflecting disciplinary proceedings against students involved in antisemitic incidents, that antisemitic vandalism occurred on campus during Passover this year, that the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter reportedly held a training session with materials promoting violence and that reporting indicated Northwestern’s mandatory anti-discrimination training included material denying and downplaying antisemitism.
Schill faced significant backlash from his comments at the hearing, which were at times vague or combative, and during which he defended a deal university administration made with an anti-Israel encampment on Northwestern’s campus. He also declined to answer various specific questions.
The shift has been attributed to a mix of factors: stricter consequences from university leaders, fear of running afoul of Trump’s pledge to deport pro-Hamas foreign students and the issue generally losing steam among easily distracted students
Grace Yoon/Anadolu via Getty Images
Pro-Palestinian students at UCLA campus set up encampment in support of Gaza and protest the Israeli attacks in Los Angeles, California, United States on May 01, 2024.
For a brief moment, it looked like 2024 all over again: Tents were erected at Yale University’s central plaza on Tuesday night, with anti-Israel activists hoping to loudly protest the visit of far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to campus. Videos of students in keffiyehs, shouting protest slogans, started to spread online on Tuesday night.
But then something unexpected happened. University administrators showed up, threatening disciplinary action, and the protesters were told to leave — or face consequences. So they left. The new encampment didn’t last a couple hours, let alone overnight. The next day, Yale announced that it had revoked its recognition of Yalies4Palestine, the student group that organized the protest. (On Wednesday night, a large protest occurred outside the off-campus building where Ben-Gvir was speaking.)
Meanwhile, at Cornell University, President Michael Kotlikoff announced on Wednesday that he had canceled an upcoming campus performance by R&B singer Kehlani because of her history of anti-Israel social media posts. He wrote in an email to Cornell affiliates that he had heard from many people who were “angry, hurt and confused” that the school’s annual spring music festival “would feature a performer who has espoused antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments in performances, videos and on social media.”
The quick decisions from administrators at Yale and Cornell to shut down anti-Israel activity reflect something of a vibe shift on American campuses. One year ago, anti-Israel encampments were, for a few weeks, de rigueur on campus quads across the nation. University leaders seemed paralyzed, unsure of how to handle protests that in many cases explicitly excluded Jewish or Zionist students and at times became violent. That’s a markedly different environment from what’s happening at those same schools so far this spring.
“In general, protest activity is way down this year as compared to last year,” Hillel International CEO Adam Lehman told Jewish Insider.
There is no single reason that protests have subsided. Jewish students, campus Jewish leaders and professionals at Jewish advocacy organizations attribute the change to a mix of factors: stricter consequences from university leaders, fear of running afoul of President Donald Trump’s pledge to deport pro-Hamas foreign students and the issue generally losing steam and cachet among easily distracted students.
Last spring, an encampment at The George Washington University was only dismantled after the university faced threats from Congress. Now, no such protest is taking place — which Daniel Schwartz, a Jewish history professor, said was likely due in part to the “sense that the university was going to be responding much more fiercely to anything resembling what happened last year.”
“For the most part, the enforcement of rules, the understanding of what the rules are, what you can do, what you can’t do, requiring people to get permits for protests, has really calmed things down [from] the sort of violence that we saw last year,” said Jordan Acker, a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan, who has faced antisemitic vandalism and targeted, personal protests from Michigan students.
Michael Simon, the executive director at Northwestern Hillel, came into the school year with a “big question mark” of how the school’s new policies, which provide strict guidance for student protests and the type of behavior allowed at them, would be applied. “I’m going to say it with a real hedging: at least up until now, I would say we’ve seen the lower end of what I would have expected,” he said of campus anti-Israel protests.
Many major universities like Northwestern spent last summer honing their campus codes of conduct and their regulations for student protests, making clear at the start of the school year that similar actions would not be tolerated again. In February, for instance, Barnard College expelled two students who loudly disrupted an Israeli history class at Columbia,.
“For the most part, the enforcement of rules, the understanding of what the rules are, what you can do, what you can’t do, requiring people to get permits for protests, has really calmed things down [from] the sort of violence that we saw last year,” said Jordan Acker, a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan, who has faced antisemitic vandalism and targeted, personal protests from Michigan students.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has pressured top universities to crack down on antisemitic activity. The president’s threats to revoke federal funding if universities don’t get antisemitism under control has drawn pushback — Harvard is suing the Trump administration over its decision to withhold $2.2 billion in federal funds from the school — but it has also led universities to take action to address the problem.
Sharon Nazarian, an adjunct professor at UCLA and the vice chair of the Anti-Defamation League’s board of directors, said there is “no question” that “the national atmosphere of fear among university administrators for castigation and targeting by the [Trump] administration is also present” at UCLA and other University of California campuses.
“My sense is that being anti-Israel is not as much of the popular thing anymore,” Evan Cohen, a senior at the University of Michigan, said at a Wednesday webinar hosted by Hillel International for Jewish high school seniors. “On my campus, there are other hot topic issues. There might be more focus on what’s happening with U.S. domestic politics.”
Rule-breaking student activists also face a heightened risk of law enforcement action. A dozen anti-Israel student protesters were charged with felonies this month for vandalizing the Stanford University president’s office last June. On Wednesday, local, state and federal law enforcement officials in Michigan raided the homes of three people connected to anti-Israel protests at the University of Michigan. Protesters’ extreme tactics have scared off some would-be allies.
“I think some of the most activist students went too far at the end of last year with the takeover of the president’s office and a lot of pretty intense graffiti in important places on campus,” said Rabbi Jessica Kirschner, the executive director of Hillel at Stanford. “I think a lot of other students looked at that and said, ‘Oh, this is perhaps not where we want to be.’”
Students’ priorities shift each year, and other issues beyond Israel are also vying for their attention. Trump’s policies targeting foreign students are drawing ire from students at liberal universities, many of which have large populations of international students.
“My sense is that being anti-Israel is not as much of the popular thing anymore,” Evan Cohen, a senior at the University of Michigan, said at a Wednesday webinar hosted by Hillel International for Jewish high school seniors. “On my campus, there are other hot topic issues. There might be more focus on what’s happening with U.S. domestic politics.”
But the lack of protests does not mean that campus life has returned to normal for Jewish students, many of whom still fear — and face — opprobrium for their pro-Israel views.
“It’s easy to avoid the protests but if you are an Israeli student or a Jewish student perceived to be a Zionist, you should expect to be discriminated against in social spaces at the university,” Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, executive director of Harvard Hillel, told JI. “That is the most powerful way students are impacted by all of this.”
Ken Marcus, founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, which since Oct. 7 has represented dozens of Jewish students in Title VI civil rights cases against their universities, said that campus-related lawsuits are only faintly slowing down this semester.
“A lot of the staff and the administration think that, ‘OK, since there’s no protest outside, all the Jewish students must feel OK, and let’s put all this stuff that happened in the spring behind us.’ It’s really not the case,” said Or Yahalom, a senior at Northwestern University who was born in Israel. “That doesn’t mean that it’s all better for students. Jewish students are increasingly afraid to speak openly about their identity or connection to Israel, except in private, safe Jewish spaces.”
“Some campuses have been less intense than during last year’s historically awful period, but others have been bad enough,” Marcus told JI. “I believe that the federal crackdown, coupled with the impact of lawsuits and Title VI cases, has had a favorable impact at many campuses, but the problems have hardly gone away.”
Or Yahalom, a senior at Northwestern University who was born in Israel, recently attended a dinner with Northwestern President Michael Schill, who has faced criticism from Jewish Northwestern affiliates — including several members of its antisemitism advisory committee — for what they saw as the administration’s failure to adequately address antisemitism.
“A lot of the staff and the administration think that, ‘OK, since there’s no protest outside, all the Jewish students must feel OK, and let’s put all this stuff that happened in the spring behind us.’ It’s really not the case,” said Yahalom. “That doesn’t mean that it’s all better for students. Jewish students are increasingly afraid to speak openly about their identity or connection to Israel, except in private, safe Jewish spaces.”
Even without massive encampments, disruptive anti-Israel protests and campus actions have not gone away entirely, though they have been more infrequent this academic year. A Northwestern academic building housing the school’s Holocaust center was vandalized with “DEATH TO ISRAEL” graffiti last week. The office of Joseph Pelzman, an economist at The George Washington University who authored a plan calling for the U.S. to relocate Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and redevelop the enclave, was vandalized in February. The Georgetown University Student Government Association is slated to hold a campus-wide referendum on university divestment from companies and academic institutions with ties to Israel at the end of the month. Smaller-scale protests continue at Columbia, with students chaining themselves to the Manhattan university’s main gate this week to protest the ICE detention of Mohsen Mahdawi and Mahmoud Khalil, two foreign students who had led protests last year.
Leaders of the University of Michigan’s anti-Israel coalition held a sham trial for the university president and Board of Regents members in the middle of the Diag, the main campus quad, this week. The event took place without issue, and the activists left when it ended.
“I wouldn’t want to say that it’s perfect,” said Acker, the Board of Regents member. “But it’s certainly much better than a year ago.”
The school year isn’t over. Some students at Columbia are planning to erect another encampment this month, NBC News reported on Wednesday.
But they’ll be doing so at an institution with new leadership, weeks after Columbia reached an agreement with the Trump administration, where the Ivy League university pledged to take stronger action against antisemitism to avoid a massive funding cut. The pressure on Columbia to crack down on any encampment will be massive.
The White House announced freezes of $1 billion in funding for Cornell and $790 million for Northwestern
Matt Burkhartt/Getty Images
A man walks through the Cornell University campus on November 3, 2023 in Ithaca, New York.
Cornell and Northwestern became the latest universities to lose federal funding on Tuesday, over what the Trump administration considers a failure to address antisemitism on campus.
The White House announced it would freeze more than $1 billion in funding for Cornell and $790 million for Northwestern, according to The New York Times. The cuts come as the administration has launched a pressure campaign against dozens of elite colleges to crack down on the antisemitic demonstrations that have roiled campuses since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks — or risk losing federal funding.
Cornell and Northwestern were among the 60 universities put on notice last month by the Department of Education that they could face financial cuts “if they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus.”
Cornell’s new president, Michael Kotlikoff, told Jewish Insider last month — one week into his new role — that he was confident that the Ithaca, N.Y., Ivy League campus wouldn’t follow in the footsteps of other elite universities that lost federal funding due to campus antisemitism.
“We think we have a very strong environment for Jews on campus,” Kotlikoff told JI on March 28. “We’ve had two very strong semesters. I’ve talked to a lot of Jewish student leaders on campus and I think everybody appreciates the fact that, with the exception of a couple of incidents that have occurred on campus and we’ve dealt with, people have seen a pretty normal semester.”
Still, Cornell is among several universities that recently initiated a hiring freeze amid financial uncertainty around the possibility of funding cuts.
In a statement to JI, Jon Yates, a spokesperson for Northwestern, said that the university has been informed of the funding freeze only by “members of the media” but it “has not received any official notification from the federal government.”
Yates expressed concern that medical research led by the university is “now at jeopardy.”
He added, “The university has fully cooperated with investigations by both the Department of Education and Congress.” A spokesperson for Cornell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brown, Columbia, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and Princeton have all faced similar penalties over the past month.
Columbia University; the University of California, Berkeley; Portland State University; Northwestern University and University of Minnesota, Twin Cities are the first targets of the new Department of Education
David Ake/Getty Images
U.S. Department of Education headquarters building in Washington, DC.
The Department of Education is taking its first major action under the new administration to combat antisemitism, launching investigations into alleged antisemitic discrimination at Columbia University; the University of California, Berkeley; Portland State University; Northwestern University and University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
The Department of Education under the Biden administration pursued antisemitism cases after complaints had been filed by students and organizations representing them. These new cases, however, are being launched proactively, giving the Department of Education broader investigative latitude.
“Too many universities have tolerated widespread antisemitic harassment and the illegal encampments that paralyzed campus life last year, driving Jewish life and religious expression underground,” Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary of education for civil rights, said in a statement. “The Biden Administration’s toothless resolution agreements did shamefully little to hold those institutions accountable.”
Trainor said the announcements serve to put “universities, colleges, and K-12 schools on notice: this administration will not tolerate continued institutional indifference to the wellbeing of Jewish students on American campuses, nor will it stand by idly if universities fail to combat Jew hatred and the unlawful harassment and violence it animates.”
In a press release, the Department of Education described the new investigations as a response to the Trump administration’s executive order last week on combating antisemitism, and said they would “build upon the foundational work” done by the House Education and the Workforce Committee since the Oct. 7 attack.
In a letter to the interim president of Columbia University obtained by Jewish Insider, Trainor noted that the university has been accused of a “longstanding pattern of tolerating antisemitic harassment, intimidation, and acts of violence” and of failing to implement disciplinary policies. He noted that Columbia faculty allegedly had “extensive” involvement in campus encampments and the break-in at the school’s Hamilton Hall.
A Columbia spokesperson said in a statement that the school is reviewing the letter and that the school “strongly condemns antisemitism and all forms of discrimination,” adding that “calling for, promoting, or glorifying violence or terror has no place at our University.”
“Since assuming her role in August, Interim President Armstrong and her leadership team have taken decisive actions to address issues of antisemitism, including by strengthening and clarifying our disciplinary processes,” the spokesperson said. “Under the University’s new leadership, we have established a centralized Office of Institutional Equity to address all reports of discrimination and harassment, appointed a new Rules Administrator, and strengthened the capabilities of our Public Safety Office. We look forward to ongoing work with the new federal administration to combat antisemitism and ensure the safety and wellbeing of our students, faculty, and staff.”
Kenneth Marcus, the founder of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and a former assistant secretary of education for civil rights in the first Trump administration, told JI that the investigations are “a big deal … every bit as important as the executive orders.”
He said he repeatedly pressured the Department of Education under the Biden administration to open such proactive cases, to no avail.
“There’s a world of difference between simply waiting for complaints to pile up versus proactively announcing initiatives,” Marcus explained. “They’re viewed very differently within the higher education community and also among OCR investigators. When the secretary of education decides to highlight an issue by developing a proactive initiative, it sends a clear message that the department is prioritizing the matter.”
He said that opening a proactive investigation also gives the department more latitude to pursue its case “in any way that it thinks is appropriate,” instead of relying on the sometimes-incomplete information presented by individual complainants.
He added that administration’s choice of schools to investigate signals it will be scrutinizing both elite institutions with highly publicized antisemitism issues and less prominent ones such as Portland State and the University of Minnesota.
“This is a way of making sure that every university president realizes that if they don’t clean up their act, they could be next,” Marcus said.
Prior to the announcement, the Department of Education had open investigations into alleged antisemitism at the University of Minnesota, as well as alleged anti-Palestinian discrimination at Columbia, Portland State and Northwestern. It previously dismissed an antisemitism case at Berkeley, deferring to pending litigation on the subject in federal court.
Marcus said he anticipates the administration will open more proactive investigations, as well as potentially seek to renegotiate some of the “controversial” settlement agreements the Biden administration inked to close antisemitism cases before the end of its term.
The announcements of new investigations come even as Trump administration officials are reportedly considering pathways to shrink or eliminate the Department of Education entirely.
He said the Department of Justice may also get more involved in campus antisemitism — it has the ability to join pending lawsuits against schools, can file its own complaints against schools, can go to court to enforce existing settlements with schools and can get more involved in a law enforcement capacity on campuses.
In a possible sign that the Department of Justice does plan to be more aggressive, the Department of Justice announced on Monday that it was launching an interagency task force, to include the Department of Education, which would focus on campus antisemitism.
The Education and Workforce Committee chair accused the school of obstructing the committee’s campus antisemitism investigation
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Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) speaks at a hearing called "Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos" before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Capitol Hill on May 23, 2024 in Washington, DC.
In a scathing new letter to the leadership of Northwestern University on Friday, House Education and Workforce Committee chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC) threatened to subpoena the school. Foxx also accused President Michael Schill of providing false testimony in a committee hearing last month.
Foxx’s letter alleges that, “rather than being cooperative and transparent, Northwestern has obstructed the Committee’s investigation of” antisemitism and Schill “refused to answer questions,” “made statements at odds with the public record” and “demonstrated an overall attitude of contempt” for the committee.
The letter accuses Northwestern of failing to comply with a previous request for documents on the school’s handling of antisemitism and anti-Israel demonstrations. Foxx said in the letter that she’s prepared to subpoena the school for documents and testimony, and that the committee will hold the school’s full Board of Trustees responsible for following her requests.
“Northwestern’s capitulation to its antisemitic encampment and its impeding of the Committee’s oversight are unbecoming of a leading university,” Foxx said. “It is inappropriate to expect taxpayers to continue providing federal funding while Northwestern appears to be in violation of its obligations to its Jewish students, faculty, and staff under Title VI and defies the Committee’s oversight.”
The letter accuses Schill of obstructing the committee by refusing to answer specific questions about specific students and faculty and their conduct. It also said that he provided testimony that contradicts the text of the agreement he struck with anti-Israel demonstrators.
According to the letter, Northwestern produced just 13 pages of non-public documents pertaining to its top-priority requests, all of which were general records of Board of Trustees meetings without specific details.
Overall, Foxx alleged that 78% of the provided documents were not relevant to its requests and that 46% were already public, as well as that Northwestern provided no non-public communications about the anti-Israel encampment.
Foxx said that Northwestern’s lawyers also had pointed to Schill’s “purported willingness to answer questions as an ostensible excuse” for not providing requested documents or a briefing by Northwestern administrators on the encampment agreement.
The letter gave Northwestern 10 days, until June 17, to provide a series of documents and communications relating to the encampment, antisemitism, Board meetings, antisemitism advisory committee meetings and donations from Qatar, or face a subpoena.
The committee previously subpoenaed Harvard University for documents, and has accused Harvard of defying that subpoena, but has not taken further public action to enforce the subpoena or impose penalties.
The letter comes days after Foxx and the leaders of the House Ways and Means; Energy and Commerce; Judiciary; Oversight; and Science, Space and Technology committees wrote to the leaders of Northwestern, Barnard, Columbia, University of California, Berkeley, University of California Los Angeles, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers and Cornell as part of a House-wide campus antisemitism investigation.
In the letters, the committee leaders vowed to conduct oversight of the use of federal funds on each campus, and outlined the various specific areas of federal law and funding that each committee is examining.
‘Maybe there’ll be some changes in the schools we’ve highlighted. But even there, I don’t expect a lot,’ Foxx said
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Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) speaks at a hearing called "Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos" before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Capitol Hill on May 23, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) said she has low expectations, even after a series of high-profile hearings with university presidents on antisemitism on college campuses, that university leaders will make significant changes to their responses to antisemitism on campus.
Asked what might happen on college campuses if the executive branch changes hands after the November election, Foxx, who chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, largely predicted that the status quo will continue.
“I’m a little skeptical of whether the presidents of many of these institutions will take any different kinds of action than what they’re taking now,” she said, speaking on Monday at the American Enterprise Institute. “I think they’ll rant and rave, I think they’ll scream things like ‘academic freedom,’ I think they’ll say, ‘But look over here at these other kinds of things.’”
“I’d like to believe that as a result of what we’ve done already, you’re going to see major changes on campus,” Foxx continued. “I’d like to see that happen. Maybe there’ll be some changes in the schools we’ve highlighted. But even there, I don’t expect a lot.”
Foxx said one of the “most frustrating” revelations from the hearings was that there is an unclear structure of accountability and responsibility within campus administrations for responding to incidents of antisemitism.
But she said she’s hopeful that at the very least, schools will work to implement better conduct codes, as Northwestern University’s president said his school would at a recent hearing. She said she wants to see clearer “lines of responsibility” and punishments for faculty, staff and students involved in antisemitic activity.
She said that the issue of tax-exempt status for colleges is largely outside of her committee’s jurisdiction but that it’s being examined by Congress.
She said she’s also had discussions with former President Donald Trump during which they’ve shared the belief that the federal government should not be involved in education “at all.”
It’s not clear what that approach might mean for federal enforcement of anti-discrimination provisions in education.
The Education Committee chair dismissed calls from Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and House Democrats for additional funding for the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, arguing that, particularly in the case of Harvard, the committee had already done the department’s work for it.
“This should have been at the top of their list, they should have gotten to it immediately,” Foxx said, referring to enforcement action by the department against Harvard.
According to Cardona, each investigator in the office has been handling 50 cases, given the surge in discrimination complaints since Oct. 7.
Foxx, highlighting the committee’s report on Harvard’s antisemitism task force, largely decried such advisory boards as lacking substance, claiming schools rarely actually respond to such committees’ recommendations.
Schill claimed he made a deal with an anti-Israel encampment in the interest of protecting Jewish students
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(L-R) Mr. Michael Schill, President, Northwestern University, Dr. Jonathan Holloway, President, Rutgers University and Mr. Frederick Lawrence testify at a hearing called "Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos" before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Capitol Hill on May 23, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
Northwestern University President Michael Schill found himself on the defensive on Thursday throughout a House Education and Workforce Committee hearing on campus antisemitism, repeatedly providing nonspecific answers, in some cases refusing to answer specific questions and occasionally becoming combative.
Schill said that he had made a deal with an anti-Israel encampment — which he acknowledged was dangerous and engaged in antisemitic activity — in the interest of protecting Jewish students. By the end of the hearing, he faced calls from Republicans for his resignation or ouster.
He declined to answer various specific questions about incidents on campus, including whether Jewish students were assaulted, harassed, stalked or spat on, citing ongoing investigations; when those investigations might be completed; whether it was acceptable for faculty to obstruct police officers; and whether he would have made a similar deal with an encampment of Ku Klux Klan members.
Asked whether it’s acceptable for students or faculty to express support for terrorism, Schill responded, “are you saying, OK meaning, is it something that I would do?… Our professors and our faculty have all of the rights of free speech.”
He said that there have so far been no students suspended or expelled in connection with antisemitic activity but that investigations are ongoing and that some staff had been fired.
The Northwestern president, who is Jewish, indicated he’s proud of the university’s deal with protesters, which has been widely condemned in the Jewish community, describing it as a “hard decision” with a “good result.”
“The danger posed grew every day it stayed up,” he said. “Every day brought new reports of intimidation and harassment,” as well as “antisemitic behavior that was making our Jewish students feel unsafe.”
He said that he saw three options for dealing with the encampment: allowing it to remain indefinitely, which was not an option; sending in police and staff to make arrests, which he said was impractical because of a lack of personnel and “too high a risk to our students, staff and police officers”; or negotiating with demonstrators.
He downplayed the nature of the concessions the university had made to the demonstrators, claiming that many of the agreements made had already been in the works before the encampment or were connected to preexisting programs. He claimed the university had not actually conceded to any of the demonstrators’ demands.
Pressed on details, Schill downplayed the deal as “just a framework of an agreement that was reached with the students at 4 o’clock in the morning” and at one point told committee members to consult Northwestern’s website for specifics.
And he said that “nothing in the agreement… specifically addressed the interests of Jewish students, other than getting rid of that encampment.” He claimed that the deal “gave them the ability to feel safe on campus.”
Local and national Jewish groups have said that the deal instead normalized and rewarded those engaging in hateful activity, without any support for the Jewish community.
Schill acknowledged that no Jewish or Israeli students, nor the university’s antisemitism task force, nor the full university Board of Trustees, were consulted before he made the agreement, claiming that would have been “impractical.” But a professor who is an outspoken promoter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement was consulted.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the committee chair, argued that Schill’s deal had created a poor precedent for other university chairs, in effect encouraging them to also make concessions.
“President Schill’s testimony today clarified his leadership imperils Jewish students and that he has failed at virtually every turn to take antisemitism on Northwestern University’s campus seriously,” the Anti-Defamation League Midwest said in a statement.
Northwestern’s antisemitism task force collapsed, with the resignations of seven members, after Schill’s agreement, though he said the school plans to implement a new task force.
Lawmakers highlighted a series of concerns about the initial task force, including the fact that it had no members who were experts on antisemitism, and some who were openly anti-Israel and supported antisemitic slogans.
Schill responded that the task force’s focus was intended to be broader than antisemitism, a mission he concluded was “impossible.” He also claimed the members had resigned in part because the task force was “unable to reach a consensus on what antisemitism was.”
The Northwestern president downplayed the significance of the hundreds of millions in funding Northwestern has received from the Qatar Foundation, saying that all of that funding went to support the Northwestern campus in Qatar.
He said he was unaware until recently that Northwestern’s journalism school had partnered with the Qatari state-run media outlet Al Jazeera, that he was “concerned” about it and would review the partnership.
Schill appeared at the hearing alongside Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway and University of California, Los Angeles Chancellor Gene Block; Schill took the brunt of the questioning, but the other two presidents also came under the committee’s microscope.
Holloway, who also struck a deal with protesters, offered a similar justification as Schill, characterizing his decision as a quick and proactive move to prevent disruptions to exams.
“We made a choice. That choice was to engage our students in dialogue as a first option, instead of police action,” he said. “If ever there was a time to dialogue and focus on civil discourse, it is now… It was made clear that we were going to allow the encampment and consider it a speech act in the spirit of First Amendment free expression” unless it disrupted university business.
Holloway was also pressed on Rutgers’ Center for Security, Race and Rights, whose leader and featured speakers praised Hamas and spread Oct. 7 denialism; the center also hosted a speaker convicted of providing material support for terrorism.
Holloway described the activity as “wildly offensive” and said “there is very little I find easy about the center. I personally disagree deeply with a lot of the ideas that come from that center.” But he said that there are many events on campus of which he is not aware and that he has no plans to shutter the center.
He was also pressed on Rutgers’ relationship with Birzeit University in the West Bank; the school has glorified terrorists, Hamas won a recent student election, several students were arrested for planning terrorist attacks and Jews are banned from the campus.
Holloway said Rutgers “partner[s] with institutions all around the world” and said he was unaware of the details about the university and would look into the issue further.
Holloway said that four students have been suspended and 19 others received other forms of discipline.
Block, unlike the other two presidents, did not make a deal and ultimately called in police assistance to clear the encampment after a violent clash between encampment members and counterprotesters.
He struck a somewhat different tone than the other presidents, acknowledging that the school had mishandled the situation and acted too slowly.
“With the benefit of hindsight, we should have been prepared to immediately remove the encampment if and when the safety of our community was put at risk,” he said.
Yet, as Block was testifying to the committee, demonstrators reestablished an encampment on UCLA’s campus.
Block said no UCLA students have been suspended or expelled, but that more than 100 investigations into antisemitism and islamophobia are ongoing, in addition to police probes into the violence.
In another notable moment, Block pushed back on Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) attempts to downplay the severity of anti-Israel activity on campus.
Omar described the encampment as “peaceful” and protected by the First Amendment, characterized the encampment members as the ones being harassed and ultimately blamed Block for the attack on the encampment by counter protesters. She also brushed aside an incident in which a Jewish student was blocked from walking down a public pathway on campus to a class building.
“This encampment was against policy, it violated time, place, manner [restrictions],” he said, before being cut off. He also said it’s “really inappropriate” for students to be blocked from any part of campus, regardless of whether other pathways were available.
Many campus leaders are now conceding it is easier to give in to protesters than to stand firm against their rule-breaking
Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images
Students and residents camp outside Northwestern University during a pro-Palestinian protest, expressing solidarity with Palestinians with banners in Evanston, Illinois, United States on April 27, 2024.
It’s spring in Cambridge, Mass. — graduation season — which means that large white tents have started to appear on the leafy quads throughout Harvard Square.
Until Tuesday, a different kind of tent was still visible in Harvard Yard: small camping tents housing the stragglers who remained in Harvard’s anti-Israel encampment even after final exams wrapped up several days ago. Last week, Harvard suspended student protesters who refused to abide by campus administrators’ orders to disband the encampment, blocking access to their dorms.
But now, just a week from the start of official university commencement festivities, Harvard has backtracked on its disciplinary action, ahead of the arrival next week of thousands of graduates’ family members, alumni and honorary degree recipients to the Ivy League university. University officials seemed to be saying that Harvard cannot get ready for commencement if Harvard Yard is still gated and locked, accessible only to university affiliates and the handful of people still camped out in protest of Harvard’s alleged “complicity in genocide.”
In making a deal with the protesters, Harvard interim President Alan Garber joined a growing number of leaders at elite universities who are incorporating protesters’ voices into major university investment decisions and allowing student activists to get off with few, if any, repercussions after weeks of disciplinary violations. Harvard’s dean of the faculty of arts and sciences wrote in a Tuesday email that the outcome “deepened” the university’s “commitment to dialogue and to strengthening the bonds that pull us together as a community.”
The path Garber took is now a well-trodden one — remove the threat of disciplinary consequences and allow protesters to meet with university trustees or other senior leaders to pitch them on divesting their schools’ endowments from Israeli businesses, a concession that before last month would have been unthinkable at America’s top universities.
In a matter of days it has become commonplace. Just two years ago, Harvard’s then-president, Lawrence Bacow, responded to the campus newspaper’s endorsement of a boycott of Israel by saying that “any suggestion of targeting or boycotting a particular group because of disagreements over the policies pursued by their governments is antithetical to what we stand for as a university.”
Northwestern University set the tone two weeks ago when President Michael Schill reached an agreement with anti-Israel protesters in exchange for them ending their encampment. Jewish leaders on campus found the agreement so problematic that the seven Jewish members of the university’s antisemitism committee — including Northwestern’s Hillel director, several faculty members and a student — stepped down in protest. Lily Cohen, a Northwestern senior who resigned from the committee, summed up their concerns: “It appears as though breaking the rules gets you somewhere, and trying to do things respectfully and by the books does not.”
Her observation has proven prescient as universities negotiate with anti-Israel protesters who break campus rules while they slow-walk reforms long sought by Jewish students — or even avoid meeting with Jewish community members altogether.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone signed onto a far-reaching agreement with protesters this week that calls for a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, condemns “genocide” and denounces “scholasticide” in Gaza and cuts off ties between a university-affiliated environmental NGO and two government-owned Israeli water companies. Meanwhile, Hillel Milwaukee said in a statement that Mone has refused to meet with Jewish students since Oct. 7. Where universities fumbled over statements addressing the Oct. 7 attacks last fall in failed bids to satisfy everyone, many campus leaders have now conceded it is easier to give in to protesters than to stand firm against their rule-breaking. (The president of the University of Wisconsin system said he is “disappointed” by UWM’s actions.)
Princeton University and Johns Hopkins University made concessions to encampment leaders this week. At Johns Hopkins, the school pledged to undertake a “timely review” of the matter of divestment, and to conclude student conduct proceedings related to the encampment. Hopkins Justice Collective, the group that organized the protests, characterized the agreement as “a step towards Johns Hopkins’ commitment to divest from the settler colonial state of Israel.”
In a campus-wide email on Monday, Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber said all students must vacate the campus quad where they had organized an anti-Israel encampment. He offered the campus protest leaders an audience with the body that reviews petitions for divestment. Other student groups can also petition for a meeting, he wrote.
Students who were arrested during the course of the protests may have a chance to take part in a so-called “restorative justice” process, whereby the university “would work to minimize the impact of the arrest on the participating students.” If protesters take responsibility for their actions, Eisgruber wrote, the school will conclude all disciplinary processes and allow the protesters to graduate this month.
At many more universities, top administrators — including university presidents — have met with demonstrators, giving them a chance to air their concerns even when they didn’t reach an agreement. University of Chicago administrators held several days of negotiations with encampment leaders before the talks fell apart and police cleared the protesters. The George Washington University President Ellen Granberg met over the weekend with student protesters who lectured her about “structural inequality” at GW and likened the university’s code of conduct to slavery and Jim Crow-era segregation, according to a video recording of the meeting.
College administrators’ negotiations to end the protests might bring a wave of good headlines and promises of quiet at campus commencements, the largest and most high-profile event of the year for most universities. But students haven’t said what they’ll do when school is back in session next year.
By promising meetings with university investment committees, the administrators are almost certainly guaranteeing that campus angst over the war in Gaza will not die down. Brown University President Christina Paxson pledged that protest leaders can meet with the university’s governing body to discuss divestment from companies that operate in Israel — in October, a year after the Hamas attacks that killed more than 1,200 people and ignited the ongoing bloodshed in the Middle East.
Correction: This article was updated to more accurately reflect negotiations between Princeton’s president and the protesters.
Hillel vice president: ‘No university can exist if rules violators are rewarded with financial incentives, while students who do abide by the rules are not similarly rewarded’
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
EVANSTON, ILLINOIS - APRIL 25: Protest signs hang on a fence at Northwestern University as people gather on the campus to show support for residents of Gaza on April 25, 2024 in Evanston, Ill. The university's president struck a deal with protesters acceding to several of their demands, a deal that is being slammed by Jewish leaders.
As universities around the country strike various deals with anti-Israel protesters to quell the turmoil on college campuses — including giving protesters a seat at the table regarding investment decisions — Jewish leaders fear that even these largely symbolic concessions could further poison the atmosphere for Jewish students.
Negotiating with protesters sets up a climate in which “Jewish students — who are not violating rules —- are being ignored, bullied and intimidated,” Mark Rotenberg, vice president and general counsel of Hillel International, told Jewish Insider. “People who violate university rules should not be rewarded with financial benefits and rewards for the violation of university rules,” he continued.
Shira Goodman, senior director of advocacy at the Anti-Defamation League, echoed that the series of deals struck all “ignore the needs of Jewish students increasingly at risk of harassment and intimidation, or worse, on campus.”
“It is critical to acknowledge the facts on the ground,” Goodman said. “For days and in some cases weeks, anti-Zionist protesters have openly violated school policies and codes of conduct by erecting encampments that have provided cover for students to fan the flames of antisemitism and wreak havoc on the entire campus community… The protesters’ aim and impact on many campuses has been to intimidate and alienate Jewish students for whom Zionism and a connection to Israel is a component of their Jewish identity. They must be held to account, not rewarded for their conduct.”
The nationwide “Gaza solidarity encampments” began on April 17 at Columbia University. On April 29, Northwestern University set the precedent for conceding to some of the protesters’ demands when its president, Michael Schill, reached an agreement with the activists to end their anti-Israel encampment, in which protesters camped out and engulfed campuses for weeks.
The protesters — most, but not all, of whom were students — took over buildings, blocked access to throughways, vandalized school property and chanted intimidating, antisemitic slogans while calling for an end to Israel’s war with Hamas and demanding that institutions cut ties with the Jewish state.
The deal at Northwestern complied with several of the students’ demands. These include allowing students to protest until the end of classes on June 1 so long as tents are removed, and to encourage employers not to rescind job offers for student protesters. The school will also allow students to weigh in on university investments — a major concession for students who have been demanding the university to divest from Israeli corporations.
The Anti-Defamation League, StandWithUs and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law joined together to slam the strategy and call for Schill’s resignation after the agreement was announced. But a handful of schools, including University of Minnesota, Brown University, Rutgers University and University of California, Riverside followed suit — giving into the demands of encampment protesters in an effort to shut them down.
While all of the agreements center around divesting from Israel, resolutions at each school look different. At Rutgers, a proposed deal reached last Thursday includes divesting from corporations participating in or benefiting from Israel; terminating Rutgers’ partnership with Tel Aviv University; accepting at least 10 displaced students from Gaza; and displaying Palestinian flags alongside other existing international flags on campus. Eight out of the 10 demands were met, while Rutgers students, faculty and alumni continue to push for the two not yet agreed to — an official call for divestment as well as cutting ties with Tel Aviv University.
At Minnesota, meanwhile, protesters packed their tents after a 90-minute meeting with Jeff Ettinger, the school’s interim president. A tentative deal was reached, which could include divestment from companies such as Honeywell and General Dynamics, academic divestment from Israeli universities, transparency about university investments, a statement in support of Palestinian students, a statement in support of Palestinians’ right to self-determination and amnesty for students arrested while protesting (nine people were arrested on campus on April 22).
In a statement to students and faculty, Ettinger wrote that coalition representatives will be given the opportunity to address the board of regents at its May 10 meeting to discuss divestment from certain companies. Public disclosure of university investments would be made available by May 7. Ettinger also said that the administration has asked university police not to arrest or charge anyone for participating in encampment activities in the past few days, and will not pursue disciplinary action against students or employees for protesting.
Rotenberg, who was general counsel of University of Minnesota for 20 years before coming to Hillel, told JI that he is working on a statement objecting to the settlements, which will be addressed to the school’s board of regents.
“I am hopeful that this is not a trend,” Rotenberg said. “No university can exist if rules violators are rewarded with financial incentives, while students who do abide by the rules are not similarly rewarded,” he continued. “That’s an upside-down world and it cannot be acceptable for individuals who violate university regulations to be given the benefits while our students’ voices are not heard.”
Rotenberg expressed ire over universities’ lack of consulting with Jewish faculty or students ahead of making the agreements. At Northwestern, seven Jewish members of the university’s antisemitism advisory committee stepped down from the body last Wednesday, citing Schill’s failure to combat antisemitism while quickly accepting the demands of anti-Israel protesters on campus.
“Any meeting with the board of regents at University of Minnesota that relates to these issues, must include Jewish voices — voices of the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community who identify with and support Israel,” Rotenberg said.
“There are many ways to enforce university time, place and manner regulation that do not involve rewarding violators,” he continued, applauding the University of Connecticut, University of Florida and Columbia University for shutting down encampments while “eliminating the dangers of disruption and violence, without rewarding the violators.” At Columbia, for example, officers in riot gear removed demonstrators who had seized Hamilton Hall and suspended students who refused to dismantle their encampment.
Not all efforts to strike deals have been successful. At University of Chicago, for instance, negotiations to remove encampment tents from the campus central quad were suspended on Sunday, after protesters reached a stalemate with the university president, Paul Alivisatos.
“The Jewish community is right to be outraged,” Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network, told JI. “You don’t capitulate to groups that are in violation of reasonable restrictions by giving into demands. That is not moral leadership… the right statements are not negotiations with rule violators, but rather say that free expression is a core value but you have to abide by university policy in doing that,” she continued, noting that she has observed a “trend with private universities being more able to weather the storm, as well as just doing better than some of the public universities.”
Like Rotenberg, Elman singled out Minnesota for its “disheartening” snub of Jews.
“Their statement [on encampments] had nothing to say to the Jewish community,” Elman said. “Nothing condemning the rank antisemitism on display, in rhetoric and calls for violence against Israeli citizens. How can you not even in one paragraph of your statement condemn how antisemitism has infused these protests?”
In a statement to JI, Jacob Baime, CEO of the Israel on Campus Coalition, called on university administrators to “clear the encampments, equally enforce existing policies, and protect Jewish students and their friends and allies,” without capitulating to “supporters of Hamas.”
Experts said that it’s too early to know whether or not the concessions offered are merely symbolic — Brown, for example, plans to wait until October for its corporate board to vote on a proposal to divest from Israeli interests, as per its negotiation with protesters. But already, according to the ADL’s Goodman, administrations that have made deals “[incentivized] further rules violations and disruption and normalized antisemitism on campus.”
Goodman cautioned that as universities try to restore order during finals and graduations, more may strike similar deals. “Administrators may see this as an acceptable solution to resolve the current situation on their own campus… It will also be interesting to see how they determine whether protestors who committed no further code of conduct violations comply and what happens if they do not comply.”
Rotenberg warned, “The Jewish community has ample reason to fear when people take the law into their own hands and who, after being warned, decide to violate the norms of their community and then get rewarded for doing so.” Going down that path, he said, is “marching down the road to authoritarianism.”
Northwestern senior Lily Cohen: ‘It appears as though breaking the rules gets you somewhere, and trying to do things respectfully and by the books does not’
Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images
Students and residents camp outside Northwestern University during a pro-Palestinian protest, expressing solidarity with Palestinians with banners in Evanston, Illinois, United States on April 27, 2024.
Seven Jewish members of Northwestern University’s antisemitism advisory committee who stepped down from the body on Wednesday blasted university President Michael Schill for his failure to combat antisemitism while at the same time quickly acceding to the demands of anti-Israel protesters on campus.
Announced in November, the committee’s members were named in January. The body has not yet put forth any public recommendations, nor has Schill adopted any policies from the committee. The seven members who resigned criticized Schill for the agreement he reached on Monday with the anti-Israel protesters who had built an encampment on campus and for not consulting members of the antisemitism committee during the negotiations.
“It appears as though breaking the rules gets you somewhere, and trying to do things respectfully and by the books does not,” Lily Cohen, a Northwestern senior who stepped down from the President’s Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism and Hate on Wednesday, told Jewish Insider. “I am hoping that this is really the last straw that President Schill needs to see in order to really do something. But I can’t say that I have a whole lot of confidence that he will, because it feels like it feels like if he wanted to do something, he’s been given plenty of opportunities to do it.”
The university is “disappointed” that some members of the committee chose to step down, Hilary Hurd Anyaso, Northwestern’s assistant vice president for communications, told JI in a statement. “Our commitment to protecting Jewish students, faculty and staff is unwavering. The University has no tolerance for antisemitic or anti-Muslim behavior.”
The home page of Northwestern’s main website still features a banner declaring “Combating Antisemitism,” with a link to the announcement of the task force members. But the committee members who resigned said university leaders never took its charge seriously.
“Students at Northwestern must be able to walk through campus without hearing hate-filled speech or experiencing harassment for their religious or political identities and commitments,” Northwestern Hillel Executive Director Michael Simon said in an email to the campus Jewish community announcing his resignation from the committee. “I accepted my appointment to the Committee last fall with the expectation that we would make a good-faith effort toward achieving these goals. Over time, it has become apparent that the Committee is not able to do so.”
Dr. Philip Greenland, a professor of cardiology at Northwestern’s medical school and an Orthodox Jew, turned on his phone on Tuesday evening after Passover ended and saw more than 400 unread emails in his inbox and a message from Efraim Benmelech, the committee’s co-chair, asking to meet at 9:15 p.m.
“After the discussion, the seven people who had joined together on this call agreed that they would each independently resign from the committee,” said Greenland, who chose to step down after learning how Schill had disregarded the antisemitism committee when he negotiated with the protestors — particularly because antisemitism had been so apparent among the protesters, which Schill acknowledged in a Tuesday video.
“My rationale was, ‘You asked us to be on this committee. We’ve been investing our time in this committee. It seems to have a purpose that you say exists. And then at the critical moment, you decide you don’t need us. You don’t need to talk to us. You go off on your own, and you make your own decision,’” said Greenland. “He might have minimized physical confrontation with the protesters, but he didn’t make the campus safer, in my opinion, for Jewish students.”
Some Jewish students who walked past the encampment were told that Zionists were not welcome there, said Cohen. A flier with a picture of Schill, who is Jewish, with horns appeared at the encampment, along with a poster showing a star of David crossed out with an X. The antisemitism committee attempted to write a statement condemning the antisemitism exhibited at the encampment but was unable to agree on what to say.
“If the committee that was created to prevent antisemitism cannot even decide on whether or not to speak up about antisemitism, I have no faith in its ability to protect Jewish students or to take any substantive action to change the environment for Jewish students on campus,” Cohen added.
When Schill named members to the antisemitism committee in January, he also announced that its scope would be broader than just antisemitism and would also encompass “other forms of hate including Islamophobia.” That approach raised eyebrows among some Jewish Northwestern affiliates. “If you really want to fix the problem, why conflate it with other issues that are going to prolong trying to find a solution to it?” Mike Teplitsky, a Northwestern alum and the president of the Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern, told JI in March.
“There were definitely Jewish students, alumni, parents, etc., when the committee was announced who immediately wrote it off, said it’s too little, too late, it’s performative, whatever. And I was very adamant that we have to give it a chance and see,” said Cohen. “I felt like maybe it was, really, a good faith effort to take a step in the right direction. So I waited and I saw, and I think the committee ended up proving the skeptics at the beginning right.”
The other committee members who stepped down were Efraim Benmelech, one of the committee’s two co-chairs and a professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg business school; University trustee Paula Pretlow; Martin Eichenbaum, an economics professor; and Daniel Greene, a history professor.
Three Northwestern students sued the university on Wednesday, alleging that it had committed a “breach of contract” by not shutting down the encampment sooner, contrary to campus policies, and by letting a hateful environment flourish among the protestors.
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), who is a Northwestern graduate and represents the Chicago suburbs, told JI the deal that Northwestern struck with members of the encampment was “reprehensible” and “unfortunate.” Schneider said he had discussed his concerns about the deal with Schill directly.
Schneider said he was told that Northwestern would not cut business ties with Israeli businesses, but the school’s public statement doesn’t reflect that. “The president hasn’t clearly articulated the principles under which Northwestern is operating,” Schneider said. “You need to be very clear and he has so far remained silent. I hope that changes.”
The Illinois congressman said he’s fully supportive of the idea, which came as part of the deal, of creating a Muslim house or other space on campus, adding that he’d happily write a check to support such a center. But Schneider objected to the decision to call this Muslim-centric space the Middle East North Africa (MENA) House. Such a name excludes all of the other religious groups that have lived in the region for thousands of years, Schneider said, and “effectively validate[s] this false premise, dangerous premise of the anti-Israel protesters that Jews are settler colonialists who have no right to be in this region and Israel has no right to exist.”
Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images
Students and residents camp outside Northwestern University during a pro-Palestinian protest, expressing solidarity with Palestinians with banners in Evanston, Illinois, United States on April 27, 2024.
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how administrators are addressing protests, encampments and clashes on campus, and report on today’s expected vote on the Antisemitism Awareness Act. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sheryl Sandberg, Ofir Akunis and Amy Schumer.
Secretary of State Tony Blinken is in Israel today for meetings with top officials, including President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Blinken’s visit to Israel follows a two-day trip through the region that included meetings in Jordan and Saudi Arabia aimed at discussing cease-fire negotiations and a day-after plan for Gaza. The trip comes as Israel prepares for a Rafah operation, following Netanyahu’s comments earlier this week that such a move was imminent, “with or without a deal” to reach a cease-fire and free the remaining hostages. More on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s comments about a potential Rafah invasion below.
“Bringing the hostages home is at the heart of everything we’re trying to do,” Blinken tweeted earlier today. “We will not rest until every hostage — woman, man, young, old, civilian, soldier — is back with their families, where they belong.”
Thousands of miles away from high-level diplomatic conversations aimed at ending a monthslong war, American college administrators are conducting their own negotiations — with anti-Israel student protesters — in an effort to restore calm on campuses across the country in the waning weeks of the spring semester.
With final exams and commencements around the corner, this time of year is usually one of packed libraries, graduation celebrations and senioritis. Not so this year on a number of campuses, where student protesters from Columbia to Northwestern to the University of North Carolina to UCLA continued to sow chaos on campus, in some cases moving from the encampments they constructed last month to take over university buildings, as they did with the takeover of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall. In other cases students commandeered university property, as students at UNC did when they took down an American flag and hung a Palestinian flag in its place.
At UCLA, overnight protests turned violent, with clashes between pro- and anti-Israel student demonstrators breaking out in the area around the encampment. At Columbia, police with riot shields arrested dozens of protesters in Hamilton Hall, effectively bringing an end to the protesters’ siege of the administrative building. Overnight, the campus encampment was cleared after two weeks.
Administrators from Evanston, Ill., to New York to Chapel Hill, N.C., have varied in their approaches to the demonstrators and their demands. Read below for more on the concessions that administrations have made to campus protesters below.
Following Columbia protesters’ takeover of Hamilton Hall earlier this week, White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates released a statement condemning antisemitism and the extreme tactics of the students.
“President Biden has stood against repugnant, antisemitic smears and violent rhetoric his entire life. He condemns the use of the term ‘intifada,’ as he has the other tragic and dangerous hate speech displayed in recent days,” Bates told JI. “President Biden respects the right to free expression, but protests must be peaceful and lawful. Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful — it is wrong. And hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America.”
Bates did not say whether Biden planned to speak about the issue publicly, or to meet with Jewish students. In a proclamation announcing Jewish American Heritage Month, which begins today, Biden addressed the situation on many campuses.
“Here at home, too many Jews live with deep pain and fear from the ferocious surge of antisemitism — in our communities; at schools, places of worship, and colleges; and across social media. These acts are despicable and echo the worst chapters of human history,” Biden said in the proclamation.
Meanwhile, a new Harvard/Harris poll found that 80% of Americans support Israel in its war against Hamas; that number drops to 57% among the 18-24 year-olds surveyed. Those numbers are perhaps best reflected in a statement released by College Democrats of America on Wednesday, showing support for the encampments and anti-Israel protesters.
Today in Washington, Jewish students from Northwestern will meet with legislators to discuss their experiences on campus in recent days, ahead of a House vote on the Antisemitism Awareness Act. More on the legislation from JI’s Marc Rod below.
The events on campus are raising concerns among congressional lawmakers. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday called on Columbia administrators to “bring order to their Manhattan campus” and compared the behavior of Columbia’s student protesters to the “brand of aggressive lawlessness” shown by “the student Nazis of Weimar Germany.”
A day prior, a group of 21 pro-Israel House Democrats sent a letter blasting Columbia and accusing administrators of failing to break up the campus’ anti-Israel encampment. The legislators alleged that failing to do so constitutes a violation of Jewish students’ civil rights. The letter, led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Dan Goldman (D-NY), describes the encampment as “the breeding ground for antisemitic attacks on Jewish students, including hate speech, harassment, intimidation, and even threats of violence.”
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) is preparing a measure to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for her comments last week referring to Jewish students as either “pro-genocide or anti-genocide”; the Minnesota congresswoman made the comments while visiting Columbia University.
House Education and Workforce Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC) invited the heads of Yale, UCLA and the University of Michigan to speak at a hearing later this month focused on “Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos.”
Meanwhile, House and Senate Republicans’ campaign arms are planning to use footage that has emerged in recent days in ads targeting vulnerable Democrats who have not condemned the protests. Among those the NRSC and NRCC plan to target: Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Bob Casey (D-PA) and Jon Tester (D-MT), as well as Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who is mounting a Senate bid in Michigan.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said yesterday at a Senate hearing that “what is happening on our campuses is abhorrent.”
“Hate has no place on our campuses and I’m very concerned with the reports of antisemitism,” Cardona said. He added that “unsafe, violent” protests and attacks on students are not protected by the First Amendment.
Cardona said that support for Hamas, the “from the river to the sea” slogan and calls for Jews to go back to Poland or be killed are “absolutely not” acceptable. He told lawmakers the department needs additional funding and investigators for its Office of Civil Rights to respond to the spike in incidents and investigations.
northwestern negotiations
Jewish leaders slam Northwestern agreement with anti-Israel protesters
After an anti-Israel encampment was erected at Northwestern University last week, the school’s president on Monday reached an agreement with protesters to end the encampment — acceding to several of their demands in the process, which drew strong condemnation from many in the Chicago and national Jewish communities, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Message received: In a letter to university President Michael Schill, the Jewish United Fund — Chicago’s Jewish federation, which also oversees Northwestern Hillel — excoriated the administrator for embracing “those who flagrantly disrupted Northwestern academics and flouted those policies. The overwhelming majority of your Jewish students, faculty, staff, and alumni feel betrayed. They trusted an institution you lead and considered it home. You have violated that trust,” the letter said. “You certainly heard and acted generously towards those with loud, at times hateful voices. The lack of any reassuring message to our community has also been heard loud and clear.”
Resignation call: The Anti-Defamation League, StandWithUs and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law joined together to call for Schill’s resignation after the agreement was announced. “For days, protestors openly mocked and violated Northwestern’s codes of conduct and policies by erecting an encampment in which they fanned the flames of antisemitism and wreaked havoc on the entire university community,” the groups said in a statement. “Rather than hold them accountable – as he pledged he would – President Schill gave them a seat at the table and normalized their hatred against Jewish students.”
Notes from New England: Brown University administrators reached an agreement with encampment organizers to put the issue of divesting from Israel up for a vote when its largest governing body, the Corporation, meets in October.
schumer says
Schumer accuses ICC of ‘long term, anti-Israel bias’ amid Israeli arrest warrant fears
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) accused the International Criminal Court on Tuesday of a decades-long bias against Israel as it weighs issuing arrest warrants for Israeli officials on charges relating to the war in Gaza. Schumer said in an exclusive statement to Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs that he has “always had deep concerns about the ICC’s long term, anti-Israel bias. And I am urging the Biden administration to send a very strong stance against possible arrest warrants that the ICC could issue against top Israeli officials.”
Reported charges: Schumer’s statement comes in response to a series of reports in recent days alleging that the ICC is planning to order the arrests of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his war cabinet over their handling of the war in Gaza. The New York Times reported that if the warrants were issued, the officials would be charged with preventing humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza and with responding too “excessively” to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks. Senior members of Hamas leadership would also be charged with committing war crimes as part of the case.
NSC comment: Reached for comment on the probe, a National Security Council spokesperson said in a statement to JI on Monday that, “As we have publicly said many times, the ICC has no jurisdiction in this situation and we do not support its investigation.”
Read the full story here.
Johnson’s call: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) called on the Biden administration to join him in urging the ICC not to issue arrest warrants for top Israeli officials on charges relating to the war in Gaza. Johnson said in a statement provided exclusively to JI that it is “disgraceful” that the ICC is “reportedly planning to issue baseless and illegitimate arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials.”
on the hill
House vote on IHRA codification likely to divide Democrats
The House is set to vote today on the Antisemitism Awareness Act (AAA), which would codify the Trump administration executive order declaring that antisemitism is a prohibited form of discrimination on college campuses, as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Outlook: The vote is one in a series of moves by House Republicans to respond to escalating anti-Israel protests on college campuses. Even though it has 15 Democratic co-sponsors in the House, the support of more than 30 Jewish organizations, including Democratic Majority for Israel, and strong bipartisan support in the Senate, the bill is likely to see opposition from a significant number of Democrats due to the codification of the IHRA definition, and its examples stating that some criticism of Israel is antisemitic.
Two proposals: Discussion in the run-up to Wednesday’s vote has also appeared to pit the AAA and another bipartisan antisemitism bill, the Countering Antisemitism Act (CAA), against each other, even though major Jewish advocacy groups and some of the bills’ sponsors sponsors see the two bills as complementary, not competing.
Going deeper: Like the AAA, the CAA also endorses and utilizes the IHRA definition, albeit without its examples, and states that it “should be utilized by Federal, State and local agencies.” CAA also has strong bipartisan support in both chambers, as well as the backing of some more liberal-leaning Jewish groups that haven’t endorsed the AAA.
What they’re saying: Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC), the lead House sponsor of the CAA, told JI she’ll vote for the AAA and called on Congress to promptly consider the CAA. “I support passage of H.R. 6090, the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which would require the Department of Education to continue considering the IHRA working definition as it investigates anti-Jewish discrimination and enforces federal civil rights law,” Manning told JI. “Making use of this definition would enhance the Department’s ability to respond to antisemitism on college campuses.”
exclusive
House members urge ‘highest possible funding’ for Holocaust education amid campus antisemitism
Amid rising antisemitism on college campuses and around the country, a bipartisan group of 20 House members urged key leaders to provide “the highest possible funding” in 2025 for the Never Again Education Act, which provides funding and resources for Holocaust education efforts through the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Quotable: “The distance in understanding between today’s youth and those who witnessed or survived World War II is widening,” the lawmakers warned in a letter to the leaders of the House Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the issue. “It is critical to institutionalize education about the events and ideology of the Holocaust before this knowledge is lost to history. Tragically, this reality is closer than we think.”
Drawing connections: The letter points to surveys showing shrinking knowledge of the Holocaust among millennials and members of Gen Z and research suggesting links between inadequate Holocaust education and antisemitic beliefs. It draws a direct line between the encampments and other anti-Israel and antisemitic activity at a growing number of colleges and a lack of education about the Holocaust.
Signatories: The letter was signed by Reps. Buddy Carter (R-GA), Kathy Manning (D-NC), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Mike Bost (R-IL), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Katie Porter (D-CA), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Nikema Williams (D-GA), Jared Golden (D-ME), Joe Neguse (D-CO) and Maxwell Frost (D-FL).
troop talk
U.S. hasn’t seen moves needed to support Rafah invasion, Lloyd Austin says
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday the U.S. still hasn’t seen the steps it expects from Israel before it can support an Israeli invasion of southern Gaza city of Rafah, the same day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s intentions to conduct operations in the city, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
No steps: The U.S. has said for months that it will not support a large-scale operation in Rafah without a plan from Israel to protect civilians from throughout Gaza who are sheltering in Rafah. Austin told members of the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that the U.S. has so far not seen steps by Israel to remove those civilians from harm’s way.
But: He did say, however, that the U.S. sees “some signs that they are moving towards that direction,” but “we have not seen a number of things that we believe will have to happen.” He said an Israeli plan must include provisions not only for moving “the preponderance” of civilians, including housing and medical care. Austin also said that “there have been far too many civilian deaths already” and that the U.S. “would want to see things done in a much different way” in Rafah.
Force protection: The defense secretary was pressed on how the U.S. will address attacks — which have reportedly already begun — on U.S. troops assembling and operating a humanitarian aid pier on the Gaza coastline. Austin said that Israel would “do everything possible” to provide security for the mission, a prospect that some Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), suggested they found troublesome, given concerns about Israel’s military operations in Gaza. He also said U.S. troops would have the right to defend themselves, including returning fire from the pier if they are attacked.
Read the full story here.
Elsewhere in Washington: Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) blasted the Biden administration over a report that it’s considering allowing Palestinian refugees from Gaza to the U.S. “Not a single Hamas sympathizer should be let into this country, and I will use every resource at my disposal to ensure this radical Biden policy never sees the light of day,” Scott said, claiming, “We have no clue who is coming into our country.”
Q&A
Ofir Akunis ready to fight antisemitism as Israel’s new consul-general in N.Y.
When Ofir Akunis arrives in the U.S. today to begin his tenure as Israel’s consul-general to New York, he will be, like many of the envoys Jerusalem has sent to the city in recent years, on his first diplomatic posting, but with many years of political experience under his belt. But unlike some of the other Likud politicians sent to the Big Apple, who were popular with the party base but headaches for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for various reasons, Akunis, 50, spent most of his political career being identified closely with the prime minister. He spoke with Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov during Passover, three days before he was set to begin his new role, saying that he will not be cowed by the increasing antisemitism in the city that he will call home in the coming years.
Wartime challenges: “I feel that I am starting in a historic era, with what is going on in the entire West, not just in the U.S. and New York and college campuses. I spoke and met with almost all of my predecessors, and I think that it is the most challenging time in the last 30 years, if not more, for a consul-general of Israel in New York,” Akunis told JI. “I like challenges. When I’m challenged, I know how to express our stances. Our position is just as Zionists and Israelis. When I resigned from the government, I said I am doing so as a Jew, a Zionist and an Israeli, in that order. Zionism comes from Judaism and being Israeli comes from Zionism. That is how I plan to act – as a proud Jew. I don’t plan to apologize to anyone…certainly not for the chain of events beginning on Oct. 7.”
Campus concerns: “Certainly, the current events require an immediate intervention in what is happening on campuses. I view the incitement and the violence with horror. They are built on antisemitic foundations, not only anti-Israel ones… It’s clear as day that this is organized and funded. We see students who have no idea what they’re talking about when you ask them what ‘from the river to the sea means.’ If you support Hamas and Islamic Jihad, you’re saying you want to destroy Israel and establish a Muslim caliphate instead,” Akunis said. “We have to fight them off, with basic unity with the Jewish communities and groups of Israelis who live there. We have to operate as one body. That is how I plan to act. I feel that this moment requires unity. I visited New York less than a month ago and felt there was unity between the Jewish community establishment and the Israelis on this, and I hope it will be preserved. When we stand united, we will succeed.”
Worthy Reads
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner: In The Atlantic, University of California, Berkeley School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky reflects on a recent incident that culminated with anti-Israel student demonstrators disrupting a dinner in his home. “Overall, though, this experience has been enormously sad. It made me realize how anti-Semitism is not taken as seriously as other kinds of prejudice. If a student group had put up posters that included a racist caricature of a Black dean or played on hateful tropes about Asian American or LGBTQ people, the school would have erupted — and understandably so. But a plainly anti-Semitic poster received just a handful of complaints from Jewish staff and students. Many people’s reaction to the incident in our yard reflected their views of what is happening in the Middle East. But it should not be that way. The dinners at our house were entirely nonpolitical; there was no program of any kind. And our university communities, along with society as a whole, will be worse off if every social interaction — including ones at people’s private homes — becomes a forum for uninvited political monologues.” [TheAtlantic]
AI Alliances: In Bloomberg, UAE Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba touts efforts by Abu Dhabi and Washington to invest in the field of artificial intelligence. “To secure the advantages AI offers, governments must race to realize the technology’s potential — and limit its harm. Who controls the data and computing power? What rules are necessary to create fair and responsible access in both emerging and mature markets? Where is the clean energy needed to operate the data centers that are the brains and muscles of AI? To meet these challenges, the UAE is working with the US and other partners to write a new playbook for this breakthrough technology. It involves resetting government regulations, reimagining public-private sector collaboration, and reshaping our relations in the world. And it is based on core principles that enable AI to flourish, while putting in place a regulatory framework to ensure its just and ethical use.” [Bloomberg]
Where Is the Outrage?: The Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus interviews Sheryl Sandberg about her new documentary, “Screams Before Silence,” about the sexual violence that took place on Oct. 7. “The world that assails Israel for its conduct of the war in Gaza should be speaking out about Hamas’s concerted assault on women. The terrorist group can deny this all it wants, but any repudiations are belied by the facts: The sexual violence was not isolated but repeated and methodical, from bloody venue to bloody venue. … Where is the outrage? Where is the condemnation? ‘I think politics are blinding us,’ Sandberg, the former chief operating officer of Facebook, told me in a Zoom call. ‘I think people have become so polarized and so bought into their frameworks that they’re not able to see information that doesn’t align with those frameworks.’ Sandberg paused, then added, ‘I think there’s some antisemitism happening as part of this.’” [WashPost]
Encampment Conversations: In The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Michael Segal, a Harvard alumnus, shares what he learned from a conversation with students involved in the school’s anti-Israel encampment. “Today’s demonstrators aren’t showing the same intellectual vitality. In our discussions, they professed a vague vision of Arabs and Jews all living together in peace, sharing the land. I told them that this vision died on Oct. 7, and that outsiders interpret their ‘from the river to the sea’ signs as calling for the brutality of that day to be repeated throughout Israel. They told me that the slogan was years old, but I pointed out, and they agreed, that the original version was ‘from the water to the water, Palestine will be Arab.’ They told me that [the] original slogan wasn’t anti-Jewish because the Jews of the Middle East once referred to themselves as Arab Jews. I allowed that such a vision wasn’t entirely crazy, recounting my experience with how Arab doctors, nurses and patients get along fine with their Jewish counterparts in Israel’s hospitals. But although this is a cheery vision, the events of Oct. 7, which many groups at Harvard rushed to praise, and similar events going back a century, killed that vision. I was surprised by how much the students didn’t know. None had heard of the Farhud, the 1941 slaughter of Jews in Baghdad — something that can’t be blamed on the 1947 partition plan for the Palestine Mandate.” [WSJ]
Around the Web
Foggy Bottom Factor: The State Department determined that five IDF battalions committed human rights violations prior to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks; four of those battalions have resolved the violations, while Foggy Bottom mulls action against a fifth, the Netzah Yehuda battalion.
Moscow Meddling: U.S. intelligence officials cautioned that Russia is using AI, fake social media accounts and its own state-run propaganda to exploit divisions in the U.S. over the Israel-Hamas war.
Trump Time: In an in-depth interview with Time magazine, former President Donald Trump discusses his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the possibility of a two-state solution and Israel’s prosecution of its war against Hamas.
Omar’s Aim: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) introduced a resolution to block more than $650 million in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, citing Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and the UAE’s support of the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan.
Hitting the Houthis: Reps. Mark Green (R-TN), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Joe Wilson (R-SC), Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) and Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Del. Aumua Amata Radewagen (R-AS) introduced the “Combating Houthi Threats and Aggression Act” to impose additional sanctions on the Houthis and their backers.
RJC Targets: The Republican Jewish Coalition said it will back “credible” primary challengers to Republicans who voted against last month’s Israel funding bill.
First in JI: Twenty-seven Republican governors signed onto a statement recognizing May as Jewish-American Heritage Month and standing “in solidarity with the Jewish community, especially at a time when Jewish people around the world face persecution.”
Prize Patrol: Fox News Israel-based reporter Trey Yingst was awarded the Axel Springer Academy’s George Weidenfeld Prize for his reporting; Axios‘ Barak Ravid was given the White House Correspondents’ Association’s award for journalistic excellence.
Released: A Tennessee man jailed on charges of shooting a gun near a Jewish day school in Memphis last year was released on bond.
Guess Who’s Back: A Cornell professor who is on a leave of absence after coming under criticism for praising the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks returned to the Ithaca campus to join anti-Israel protests at the Ivy.
PEN-ned In: The Atlanticreports on the challenges facing PEN America — including the decision not to hold its annual conference following a series of speaker cancelations — as it faces criticism for its refusal to accuse Israel of genocide.
Labor Pains: A group of former Google employees who were fired for protesting the company’s ties to Israel filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board over their terminations.
Done Deal: WeWork struck a new restructuring agreement with its top backers to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy; the deal omits founder Adam Neumann, who had floated a proposal to purchase the company back for upwards of $500 million.
Schumer in the Spotlight: Varietytalks to comedian Amy Schumer about her rise to fame and, since Oct. 7, antisemitism she has faced and the responses she’s gotten over her support for Israel.
Active Voice: The Wall Street Journalinterviews musician John Ondrasik, also known as Five for Fighting, about his outspoken support for Israel and concerns about support for Israel in the entertainment industry.
Across the Pond: U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron pushed back against calls to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror group, saying that such a move would “weaken” London’s negotiating position.
Down Under: Prosecutors in Sydney, Australia, charged four teenagers with a plot to purchase weapons and carry out a terror attack against Jews.
Court’s Call: The International Court of Justice rejected a Nicaraguan request to order Germany to halt its transfers of weapons and aid to Israel.
Lapid in Abu Dhabi: Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid is in the United Arab Emirates today; The New York Timestalked to Lapid over the weekend for the debut edition of its new weekly series, “The Interview.”
Searching for Answers: The Wall Street Journalreports on the efforts of Israeli parents to discover how their children — who were killed in Gaza after being taken hostage — died.
The Best Defense: 1948 Ventures’ Aaron Kaplowitz said that Israel’s defense technology could be used to address issues from climate change to energy costs.
Aid Endeavors: World Central Kitchen resumed its Gaza operations weeks after an Israeli strike killed seven aid workers; in a Washington Post op-ed, founder José Andrés explains the decision to return to the enclave.
Remembering: Writer Paul Auster, author of The New York Trilogy, died at 77. Dr. Werner Spitz, a forensics expert who played a role in numerous high-profile cases, including that of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., died at 97.
Pic of the Day
Secretary of State Tony Blinken met on Wednesday in Tel Aviv with the families of American-Israelis being held hostage by Hamas terrorists. A statement from the Hostage Families Forum said that Blinken expressed “cautious optimism” about the potential for a deal to secure the release of some of the remaining hostages.
From left: Lee Siegel, the brother of hostage Keith Siegel; Blinken; Aviva Siegel, who was held hostage by Hamas for 51 days; and Elan Siegel, the daughter of Aviva and Keith.
Birthdays
Israeli entrepreneur and software engineer, founder and CEO of Conduit, Israel’s first billion-dollar internet company, Ronen Shilo turns 66…
Progressive political activist, literary and political journalist, Larry Bensky turns 87… Retired national director of the Anti-Defamation League, now national director emeritus, Abraham Henry Foxman turns 84… Assistant professor at Yeshiva University and editor emeritus of Tradition journal, Rabbi Shalom Carmy turns 75… Deborah Chin… Boston area actor, David Alan Ross… Brigadier-general (reserves) and former chief medical officer in the IDF, he was also a member of the Knesset for 10 years, Aryeh Eldad turns 74… Of counsel at D.C.-based Sandler Reiff where he specializes in redistricting law, Jeffrey M. Wice… Former member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-CO) from 2007 until 2023, Edwin George “Ed” Perlmutter turns 71… Austrian-Israeli singer-songwriter, Timna Brauer turns 63… Real estate entrepreneur, he is a co-founder of the Israeli American Leadership Council (IAC) and supporter of FIDF, Eli Tene turns 61… Member of the board of governors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester, Rina F. Chessin… Member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, David R. Karger turns 57… Israeli judoka, she is a member of the International Olympic Committee and the head of the merchandise division of Paramount Israel, Yael Arad turns 57… Majority leader of the Washington State Senate, he is a co-owner of minor league baseball’s Spokane Indians, Andrew Swire “Andy” Billig turns 56… Senior attorney in the Newark office of Eckert Seamans, Laura E. Fein… Political columnist at New York magazine since 2011, Jonathan Chait turns 52… Radio personality and voice-over artist, Gina Grad turns 46… Attorney and co-founder of I Am a Voter, a nonpartisan civic engagement organization, Mandana Rebecca Dayani turns 42… D.C.-based political reporter, Ben Jacobs turns 40… Senior video journalist covering investigative and national news for the Washington Post, Jonathan Gerberg… Member of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, Marina Tauber turns 38… Operations manager at GrowthSpace, Jenny Feuer… Principal at Forward Global, Omri Rahmil… Photographer and digital media editor at the Jewish Women’s Archive, Hannah Altman turns 29… Sam Zieve-Cohen…
President Michael Schill agreed to allow students to weigh in on university investments and continue to protest if they end encampment
Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images
Students and residents camp outside Northwestern University during a pro-Palestinian protest, expressing solidarity with Palestinians with banners in Evanston, Illinois, United States on April 27, 2024.
After an anti-Israel encampment was erected at Northwestern University last week, the school’s president on Monday reached an agreement with protestors to end the encampment — acceding to several of their demands in the process, which drew strong condemnation from many in the Chicago and national Jewish communities.
In a letter to university President Michael Schill, the Jewish United Fund — Chicago’s Jewish federation, which also oversees Northwestern Hillel — excoriated the administrator for embracing “those who flagrantly disrupted Northwestern academics and flouted those policies.”
“The overwhelming majority of your Jewish students, faculty, staff, and alumni feel betrayed. They trusted an institution you lead and considered it home. You have violated that trust,” the letter said. “You certainly heard and acted generously towards those with loud, at times hateful voices. The lack of any reassuring message to our community has also been heard loud and clear.”
The Anti-Defamation League, StandWithUs and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law joined together to call for Schill’s resignation after the agreement was announced.
“For days, protestors openly mocked and violated Northwestern’s codes of conduct and policies by erecting an encampment in which they fanned the flames of antisemitism and wreaked havoc on the entire university community,” the groups said in a statement. “Rather than hold them accountable – as he pledged he would – President Schill gave them a seat at the table and normalized their hatred against Jewish students.”
In a document deemed “Agreement on Deering Meadow,” Schill agreed to allow students to protest until the end of classes on June 1 so long as tents are removed, and to encourage employers not to rescind job offers for student protestors. The school will also allow students to weigh in on university investments — a major concession for students who have been demanding the university to divest from Israeli corporations.
A section titled “inclusivity” pledged extra funding to programs supporting Muslim students and Palestinian faculty, and to build a campus house for Muslim students. (A university spokesperson declined to say whether Northwestern will also offer funds for the campus Hillel house, an independent organization that funds its own operations.) The agreement earned the praise of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. It mentioned Jewish students once, in a section committing to “additional support for Jewish and Muslim students.”
After criticism mounted from Jewish leaders and stakeholders, Schill released a video Tuesday evening defending the agreement while also condemning antisemitism.
“I am proud of our community for achieving what has been a challenge across the country: a sustainable de-escalated path forward, one that prioritizes safety, safety for all of our students, for all of our Jewish students, for all of our Muslims students, all of our students,” Schill said. “This agreement reduces the risk of escalation which we have seen at so many of our peer institutions.”
Schill, who is Jewish, outlined his own connection to antisemitism — a great-grandfather was killed in a Russian pogrom, and several relatives were killed at Nazi concentration camps.
“I recognize that some slogans and expressions are subject to interpretation, but when I see a star of David with an X on it, when I see a picture of me with horns, or when I hear that one of our students has been called a dirty Jew, there is no ambiguity. This needs to be condemned by all of us and that starts with me,” said Schill.
A university spokesperson declined to comment when asked if the negotiations with the anti-Israel protesters also included representation from the university’s antisemitism task force, or Jewish students.
Northwestern’s deal with campus protesters comes on the heels of Columbia University’s failed negotiations with protestors, who had been in talks with Columbia administrators before they stormed an administrative building on Monday night.
Brown University’s leadership also reached a deal with a similar group of activists who had set up an encampment on the Providence, R.I., campus. The agreement stated that no Brown affiliates who were involved in the encampment will face retaliation from the university, and that leaders of the encampment will not have suspension or higher. No student groups will lose their formal recognition over members’ role in the encampment.
Perhaps most significantly, Brown President Christina Paxson agreed that the Brown Corporation, the university’s governing body, will vote in October on divestment from Israeli companies. The Corporation will also meet with representatives of the Brown Divest Coalition in May.
The text of the agreement and a letter sent from Paxson to the university community did not mention anything about Jewish and Israeli students, or about antisemitism.
Elite universities are increasingly turning to task forces to address campus antisemitism. But questions remain over the efficacy and mandate of such groups
JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images
People walk through Harvard Yard at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts on December 12, 2023.
In the aftermath of a surge in antisemitism that erupted following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel, top universities including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania and Northwestern announced the creation of new bodies tasked with studying antisemitism on campus and identifying how to address it. Their impending work is framed with urgency, and the bodies are generally discussed using language about the importance of inclusivity on campus.
But nearly five months after the environment for Jewish students on these campuses began to rapidly deteriorate, questions remain over the efficacy and mandate of such groups. They will also face the thorny issue of campus free speech as they delve into questions about what, exactly, constitutes antisemitism on campus.
The question over the credibility of these antisemitism task forces was underscored this week at Harvard, following the resignation of business school professor Raffaella Sadun, the co-chair of the presidential task force, reportedly because she felt university leaders weren’t willing to act on the committee’s recommendations.
“They’ve utterly failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students. It’s shameful,” a Jewish faculty member at Harvard told Jewish Insider. They requested anonymity to speak candidly about interactions with students and administrators in recent months. The professor has seen numerous Israeli students kicked out of WhatsApp groups unrelated to politics because they are Israeli. The professor also described widespread opposition, among many students, to topics having to do with Israel — and a corresponding reluctance to act from administrators, who fear pushback from far-left students.
“If you’re an administrator, and you care about your own personal well-being, and you want to keep Harvard out of the news or off social media, you basically try not to engage with these people in a way that will provoke them,” the professor said. “In the end this backfired on Harvard, because their failure to take care of Jewish students contributed to the accusations of institutional antisemitism, the lawsuit, the congressional investigation.”
“I think if the mandate is not clear, if there’s not enough resources, if the council doesn’t have committees and jobs, it’s just going to be window dressing,” said Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network. “It’s not going to be able to do the work that needs to be done.”
Harvard announced the creation of an antisemitism task force in January, which immediately faced criticism due to comments made by its other co-chair, historian Derek Penslar, suggesting that antisemitism is not a major problem at Harvard. The body’s full membership has now been announced, but the scope and timeline of its work remains unclear.
Interim Harvard President Alan Garber said in a Monday email that he expects the work of Harvard’s antisemitism task force to “take several months to complete,” but he asked the co-chairs “to send recommendations to the deans and me on a rolling basis.” It is not clear if the university will provide updates along the way; or if Harvard’s leadership will accept the task force’s recommendations.
At universities that already had antisemitism task forces prior to Oct. 7, those that achieved the most success generally have a budget to pursue actual work, a clear timeline for their work and strong buy-in from administrators, who must be willing to actually implement the groups’ recommendations, according to Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network, which works to fight anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism at U.S. universities.
It’s not yet clear if the newly created task forces — especially those at private universities, which don’t have the same obligation for transparency as public universities — will achieve the needed support from leaders.
“I think if the mandate is not clear, if there’s not enough resources, if the council doesn’t have committees and jobs, it’s just going to be window dressing,” said Elman. “It’s not going to be able to do the work that needs to be done.”
At Columbia University, Shai Davidai, an assistant professor in the business school, said he doesn’t have confidence that a newly created antisemitism task force can succeed unless the faculty on the committee changes to include more Zionist and Israeli voices.
“Stanford is aware of exactly what is going on, and if they cared they would have done something over the last five months,” said Kevin Feigelis, a doctoral student in the Stanford physics department, who on Thursday testified at a House Education Committee roundtable with Jewish students. “The university places people on these committees in one of two ways: either it places people who they think are going to be most sympathetic to the university or they go straight to Hillel and ask them. These are both troubling.”
“At universities, if you want to make sure something doesn’t happen, you set up a task force,” Davidai continued. “The task force at Columbia has done absolutely nothing. They just talk.”
At Stanford University, an antisemitism task force created in the wake of Oct. 7 has, like Harvard’s, been mired in conversations and controversy over its membership. Faculty co-chair Ari Kelman, an associate professor in Stanford’s Graduate School of Education and Religious Studies, had a record of downplaying the threat of campus antisemitism along with recent alliances with anti-Israel groups. He resigned, citing the controversy, and was replaced with Larry Diamond, a pro-Israel professor in Stanford’s political science department. Under its new leadership, the committee also expanded its name and scope in January to include anti-Israel bias.
Despite the updates, Kevin Feigelis, a doctoral student in the Stanford physics department, who on Thursday testified at a House Education Committee roundtable with Jewish students, said that “the task force has still accomplished nothing and it’s not clear that they have the power to accomplish anything.”
In January, Feigelis worked with the campus antisemitism task force to plan an on-campus forum meant to combat antisemitism. The symposium was disrupted by a pro-Palestinian protest that included threats to Jewish attendees.
The task force “was instituted just to appease people,” Feigelis said. “Stanford is aware of exactly what is going on, and if they cared they would have done something over the last five months. The university places people on these committees in one of two ways: either it places people who they think are going to be most sympathetic to the university or they go straight to Hillel and ask them. These are both troubling.”
Feigelis expressed belief that the task force could accomplish more if it consisted of lawyers and more Israeli faculty.
“If you really want to fix the problem, why conflate it with other issues that are going to prolong trying to find a solution to it?” Mike Teplitsky, a Northwestern alum and the president of the Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern, said of the task force’s attempt to also focus on Islamophobia and other forms of hate. “I would call it a bureaucratic distraction from trying to fix the problem.”
“If [the administration cared] the committee would not be made of political scientists and a biologist… lawyers should be the ones staffing a committee that determines what constitutes antisemitism. Instead they picked people who have no idea what constitutes free speech or what the code of conduct actually is.”
He continued, “The task force is currently holding listening sessions, but it’s just not clear what will come of that.”
After Northwestern University announced in November that it would create an antisemitism task force, 163 faculty and staff members at the university wrote a letter to President Michael Schill saying they were “seriously dismayed and concerned” by the announcement, raising concerns that the task force’s work would challenge “rigorous, open debate.” Three of the signatories of that letter — including Jessica Winegar, a Middle Eastern studies professor and vocal proponent of boycotts of Israel — were then named to the task force, which will also focus on addressing Islamophobia.
“If you really want to fix the problem, why conflate it with other issues that are going to prolong trying to find a solution to it?” Mike Teplitsky, a Northwestern alum and the president of the Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern, said of the task force’s attempt to also focus on Islamophobia and other forms of hate. “I would call it a bureaucratic distraction from trying to fix the problem.”
Mark Rotenberg, Hillel International’s vice president for university initiatives and the group’s general counsel, argued that antisemitism has proven to be so severe as to warrant its own mechanisms. The inclusion of Islamophobia “and other hateful behavior” in the group’s mandate would be like if a campus Title IX office, focused on gender-based inequality, was also required to focus on racism.
“Antiracism may be a very important thing, but merging it with the problem of violence in frat houses is not going to signal the women on that campus that they are really taking that problem seriously,” said Rotenberg, who works with administrators at campuses across the U.S. on antisemitism-related issues. “That’s our point about antisemitism.”
Lily Cohen, a Northwestern senior who is a member of the task force, came face to face with antisemitism on campus a year before the Oct. 7 attacks. After writing an op-ed in the campus newspaper decrying antisemitism and speaking out about her support for Zionism, she was called a terrorist and faced an onslaught of hate — including a large banner that was printed with her article, covered by “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” in red paint.
“I think it comes from the top,” said Cohen, who noted that, after the op-ed incident, “no strong actions were taken to stand up for Jewish students or protect Jewish students, or even just express that that wasn’t OK. It fostered an environment where antisemitism is tolerated at Northwestern as long as it stays just subtle enough that you’re not saying Jews.”
Afterward, she met with university administrators to talk about what happened to her. “At the end of the day, listening is not enough,” she said. “I don’t think in any of the meetings I had with any administrators, that they actually referred to what happened to me as antisemitism. I think that that’s a huge problem here, is how easy it is to say, ‘We are not antisemitic, we’re just anti-Zionist,’ or ‘We don’t hate Jews, we just hate Zionists. We just hate Israel.’”
The group started meeting in January, and it was asked by the president to finish its work by June, which Cohen worries is not enough time, especially given its broad scope. Administrators at the school have not instilled much confidence in her in the past, but she is choosing to be hopeful.
“Being on the committee, I have to be optimistic that we’re going to do something and that the president will take our recommendations seriously, and will put them into action,” she said. “Because if not, what was it all for?”
Gabby Deutch is Jewish Insider’s senior national correspondent; Haley Cohen is eJewishPhilanthropy’s news reporter.
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