Cornell. Well, that’s one way to end a controversy. Cornell University’s Faculty Senate has officially dropped its effort to back Prof. Eric Cheyfitz, shown below hoisting a megaphone during a 2024 anti-Israel protest, because, plot twist: he is no longer faculty. He has agreed to retire. Cheyfitz had faced discrimination charges for allegedly booting an Israeli student from his course on Gaza for being “disruptive.” In a recent meeting with the Faculty Senate, Provost Kavita Bala revealed that “After [the] third class, the faculty member talked to the student and explicitly told the student that he was not welcome in the class because ‘he was an Israeli citizen supporting an Israeli stance in Gaza.’”

Cheyfitz at an anti-Israel encampment in Spring 2024. (Source: Nina Davis / The Cornell Daily Sun)

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U.K. Nothing says “higher learning” like dusting off a centuries-old antisemitic blood libel. University College London (UCL) is in damage-control mode after a former academic used a campus lecture to promote an antisemitic blood libel. In footage from a Students for Justice in Palestine event, Dr. Samar Maqusi spins the long-debunked Damascus Affair and claims Jews once “controlled” global finance — managing to pack multiple classic antisemitic tropes into a single lecture. UCL promptly banned her from campus, froze the student group’s events and called the remarks “heinous.” Jewish leaders were stunned that such myths were platformed at a top university, noting that “much work still needs to be done to ensure that Jewish students feel safe and respected on our campus.”

DEEPER: To learn more about the origins of the antisemitic blood libel, see ADL’s backgrounder: Blood Libel: A False, Incendiary Claim Against Jews.

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Columbia. Columbia University’s Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing gave a clear “thanks, but no thanks,” to not one, not two, but three separate anti-Israel BDS proposals last week. In a refreshingly blunt rejection, the committee simply said there was no clear consensus on what constitutes a human rights abuse and that the proposals targeting Israel “would imply no end to the list of companies that could be categorized as violating human rights. One would have a hard time drawing the line on the boundaries of which industry can be legitimately treated as a violator of human rights.” The school had also shot down BDS efforts in 2024.

DEEPER: A 2024 report by ADL affiliate JLens warned that divestment could cost major universities billions in endowment returns over the next decade. Not sure what BDS is all about? See ADL’s Guide to Understanding and Countering BDS Calls.

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Kentucky. “Freedom prohibits the prescription of political orthodoxy,” wrote the University of Kentucky’s own general counsel in 2016. Ramsi Woodcock is putting that theory to the test — by suing his employer after being reassigned for publishing a petition that demanded, verbatim, “every country in the world make war on Israel.” The tenured law professor argues his comments were protected speech and part of his research on colonization. UK says they’re investigating if his rhetoric created a hostile environment for Jewish students. The case flips the script on recent lawsuits by Jewish students, arguing that anti-Zionism is not discrimination but protected political speech.

DEEPER: For more on related claims against Israel and incendiary rhetoric, see ADL resources on “Slogan: From The River to the Sea” and “Allegation: Israel as a Settler Colonialist Enterprise.”

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Canada. Concordia University is under fire after “Kill all Jews” was found scrawled on a campus bathroom wall — another escalation in what has allegedly become routine hostility. B’nai Brith Canada called the graffiti “a direct threat” and accused Concordia of letting hate become “normalized” on campus. The group has now announced a new Campus Accountability Roundtable, saying empty safety assurances are no longer enough.

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Northwestern. What is antisemitism? At Northwestern University, history professor David Shyovitz isn’t handing out definitions, he’s giving students the frameworks to wrestle with the question themselves. His course, launched in early 2024 and returning this fall, explores ancient Jew hatred and modern Zionism debates, culminating in a student-led IHRA vs. Jerusalem Declaration showdown. Amid campus controversies — from encampments to then-university president Michael Schill’s resignation — the course has drawn praise for promoting respectful, rigorous conversation. “The history that they’re studying actually has very clear stakes for present day policy questions,” Shyovitz said. “These students were able to get to the crux of these issues in a much more productive way.”

DEEPER: If you want to debate these questions on your own, check out ADL’s backgrounder on “What Is Antisemitism?”

A Door Was Shattered, But Spirits Stay Strong. Jewish student leaders are showing their resolve after a frightening confrontation where anti-Israel protesters stormed an off-campus event held by Students Supporting Israel (SSI) at Toronto Metropolitan University, reportedly shattering a glass door and injuring a speaker. As Liat Schwartz, SSI president at the school said, “no student in Canada should have to fear being physically attacked for expressing their identity or beliefs… we will keep showing up. We will keep speaking. Because the true test of courage is not whether you stand when it is easy, but whether you stand when the world tells you to sit down.”

Students barricade a door at Toronto event to keep out protesters. (Source: Standwithuscanada | Instagram)

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The Cost of Forgetting. The chancellor of UCLA issued a stark warning this week: German universities never recovered after driving out their Jewish scholars — and American campuses risk repeating that history. In an op-ed rooted in his own family’s escape from 1930s Germany, Chancellor Julio Frenk argues that today’s surge in campus antisemitism demands “moral clarity” on campuses and beyond. Frenk notes that Jewish Americans are already the most frequent targets of religious hate crimes and says universities must protect students while safeguarding open inquiry. The lesson, from a century ago, is blunt: fight antisemitism, or watch universities corrode from within.

• Campus Community Advocacy Toolkit — From incident reporting and educational resources to letter-writing campaigns and Know Your Rights factsheets, ADL has clear steps for you to take action and effect change on college campuses.
• University Administration — Guidance and best practices for making campuses safer and more inclusive.
• Campus Antisemitism Report Card — See the grades of 135 universities, the current state of antisemitism on campus and how colleges and universities are responding.
• General Campus Resources — ADL Backgrounders, Educational Programming, Research and Analysis and more.
• ADL Legal Action Network — Anyone over 18 can report incidents of antisemitism to ADL for our network of law firms nationwide.
• K-12 Advocacy Resources — Tools and knowledge to foster and advocate for a safe, inclusive and equitable school environment for all.
• K-12 Advocacy Resources for Independent Schools — Additional resources for members of independent K-12 school communities.
• Report an Antisemitic Incident.

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