Touro University and the National Jewish Advocacy Center announced a teaching fellowship to help professors develop courses that address antisemitism and strengthen academic engagement with Jewish and Israeli topics on college campuses.
The initiative will bring a cohort of professors to New York for a four-day training retreat June 22-25. Fellows will receive support to design and teach new undergraduate courses focused on Jew-hatred and modern challenges facing Jewish students.
Mark Goldfeder, CEO and director of National Jewish Advocacy Center, told JNS that the program focuses on faculty who already work across disciplines and who may be able to incorporate Jewish or Israeli subjects into their courses.
“We can’t afford to hire new professors,” he said. “And we can’t force universities to do it, but if you’re a Jewish or not-antisemitic professor of anthropology, for example, it’s not too hard to add a course on Jewish or Israeli matters.”
“You’re already there, hired and paid for,” he told JNS. “If every campus suddenly had professors willing to do this, we wouldn’t need Qatar-level money. We could just take them back naturally over time.”
Selected fellows will develop and teach new undergraduate courses at their home institutions at least twice each. They will also submit a report at the end of the project.
The fellowship is intended to focus on topics that include the history of antisemitism in the United States and globally, legal frameworks governing discrimination and civil rights and practical advocacy tools for addressing bias on campus.
Up to 10 proposals will be selected for the inaugural cohort. Professors teaching or researching in political science and international relations, legal studies, history, Jewish studies, sociology, anthropology or adjacent fields are invited to apply.
“We didn’t lose the campuses overnight,” Goldfeder stated. “It will take a strong, coordinated, systemic effort to right the wrong and steady the ship. It starts now.”
