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Israeli Lawmakers Convene on Campus Antisemitism.
Earlier today, the Israeli Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs held a hearing focused on antisemitism on campuses around the world. The Committee heard testimony from students from Israel, the United States and around the world, as well as from experts focused on campus antisemitism, including ADL's VP of Advocacy Shira Goodman, who reminded the committee that “college campuses have become an epicenter of American antisemitism.” She called attention to the staggering number of antisemitic incidents on campus in the U.S. and discussed ADL work to push universities to keep Jewish students, faculty and staff safe. Shira shared information about
ADL’s Campus Antisemitism Report Card, CALL (the Campus Antisemitism Legal Line)
and our training of students in the U.S., Europe and Latin America on how to respond to campus antisemitism, noting that ADL is the largest provider of this training to Jewish students in the latter two regions.
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Teachers Union Targets ADL in Divisive Vote Tied to Gaza. Despite vociferous objections from Jewish members, delegates to the National Education Association narrowly passed a measure that, if implemented, would bar the teachers union from using, endorsing or publicizing any educational materials from ADL. The Jewish Insider
reported that in the moments before the vote several Jewish delegates spoke out in opposition to the bill. A spokesperson for the NEA's Jewish affairs caucus said the action "sends a troubling message of exclusion and undermines our shared goal of ensuring every student feels safe and supported." ADL called the measure "profoundly disturbing," and noted that the bill was an attack on educational resources on antisemitism, the Holocaust and anti-bias learning. The new measure will now move to the union’s executive committee for consideration.
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George Mason. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has notified George Mason University that it is under investigation over concerns cited in the DOE notification
that the school was "failing to respond effectively to a pervasive hostile environment for Jewish students and faculty." As shown in ADL’s Campus Antisemitism Report Card, George Mason faced a series of problematic incidents in 2023 and 2024 including the discovery of weapons and terrorist paraphernalia in the homes of two students who were SJP leaders. The ADL Report Card also notes substantial steps taken to respond to incidents and to support Jewish life on campus.
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Costly Protests. Universities across the U.S. and U.K. are facing pricey cleanup bills from months of anti-Israel encampments protesting the Israel-Hamas war. In California, the University of California system spent over $29 million in spring 2024,
with UCLA alone reporting $10 million in security and $400,000 in repairs. Encampments reportedly left behind vandalism, pest infestations and damage to campus grounds. At UC Davis, students noted lingering graffiti and dead grass. In the U.K., Oxford and Cambridge reported a combined £615,000 in cleanup and security expenses. Cambridge faced particular concern after activists occupied an administrative building housing sensitive data. Over a year after the peak of the campus protests, administrators on both sides of the Atlantic are still dealing with the financial and safety fallout.
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At UCLA in 2024, anti-Israel encampment next to Royce Hall. (Source: Jeremy Chen/Daily Bruin) |
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Barnard. A settlement has been reached in Students Against Antisemitism, Inc. et al v. The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York.
In the agreement between Barnard and a group of Jewish students, the school will take a number of steps including adding an anti-masking policy at demonstrations, refusing to divest from companies that have ties to Israel, no longer meeting with anti-Israel campus groups, providing required training on antisemitism to students, faculty and staff and more. ADL commended the agreement, saying “These and other reforms are positive steps to help protect Jewish students, faculty and staff.”
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Columbia. Members of a U.S. House committee investigating antisemitism on college campuses have released private text messages
from Columbia University’s acting president, Claire Shipman, in which she expresses distrust toward a Jewish trustee, Shoshana Shendelman, who had been outspoken about the university’s failure to protect Jewish students. The messages, written in 2023 and 2024 during her time as co-president of the board, include Shipman agreeing with another trustee that Shendelman might be “a mole” and calling her “extraordinarily unhelpful” during campus protests following the 10/7 Hamas attacks. After this release of her texts, Shipman issued an apology to the board, saying her comments were made in frustration and don’t reflect her true views.
ADL called on Shipman to apologize publicly as well, and to acknowledge the impact of her comments in perpetuating a hostile campus climate for the Jewish community.
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University of California. The University of California system reaffirmed its policy
barring financial boycotts of companies based on their association with any country, following calls by some student governments in the UC system to target Israel. In a letter to UC chancellors, President Michael Drake emphasized that financial decisions must follow “sound business practices,” and that boycotts based on nationality violate that principle. While Drake’s letter applied to all countries, advocates noted the context of recent anti-Israel boycott efforts. ADL’s Robert Trestan welcomed
the move, calling boycotts of Israel “a harmful, one-sided movement” that can normalize antisemitism. Jewish faculty and advocacy groups applauded Drake’s statement, though some urged UC to go further in addressing academic boycotts.
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Ireland. A senior faculty member at Ireland’s University of Limerick, Ger Downes, allegedly assaulted student
Jamie O’Mahony during an off-campus lecture by anti-Israel historian Ilan Pappé. The altercation, partially caught on video, shows Downes grabbing an Israeli flag from O’Mahony and physically confronting him after the student posed a question defending Israel’s democratic freedoms and criticizing Pappé’s views. Downes, listed as the university’s Postgraduate Research Development Manager, has faced backlash, including from Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, who condemned the act as antisemitic and called on the university to take action.
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K-12 Coverage
Concord-Carlisle Regional K-12 School District. ADL and partners have filed a brief
with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights alleging that officials at the Concord-Carlisle Regional School District in Massachusetts failed to protect Jewish students from pervasive antisemitic harassment, discrimination and retaliation. The filing documents an alarming pattern of antisemitic bullying, slurs, threats, and retaliation at Concord-Carlisle High School and Concord Middle School in Concord, Massachusetts, with at least one Jewish student forced to leave the district to escape the hostile climate. ADL termed it a “systematic issue” and noted that “It’s clear that much work is needed for this district to become a place that
truly protects its Jewish students.”
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Seattle Public K-12 Schools. The Seattle Public School District has announced that it will terminate the employment of a high school teacher who is now on administrative leave. The teacher had been recorded in 2024 in a video interview as saying that the 10/7 attacks were justified and he also questioned whether anyone was raped at the Nova music festival during that terrorist massacre. The teacher is appealing the decision by the school district.
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Virginia K-12 School. Two Jewish parents have filed a civil rights complaint alleging their children were expelled from the Nysmith School for the Gifted in Herndon, VA after reporting antisemitic bullying. According to the complaint,
their 11-year-old daughter faced harassment over the Israel-Hamas conflict and encountered disturbing classroom incidents, including a social studies project depicting Adolf Hitler as a “strong leader.” The parents say the school canceled a Holocaust program speaker and later removed their children, citing a lack of trust. Nysmith’s director denies wrongdoing. The Brandeis Center, representing the family, says the children were “shattered” by the expulsion. The complaint was filed with the Virginia Attorney General. |
