Natan Sharansky, who now serves as chairman of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), has urged the U.S. administration under President Donald Trump to take strong action against what he termed “the antisemitic protests” on American university campuses.
“In the end, the critical thing is whether the new administration would be ready to punish universities for doing nothing,” Sharansky said in an exclusive interview with JNS at the end of February. “We still are waiting for the new administration of President Trump to make very strong statements about it. It’s the time to move from statements to action. And here, of course, we have to expect the administration to act. We need action, not just words.”
On March 4, Trump threatened to cut federal funding to any college, school or university that allow “illegal protests” on their campuses. In a strong statement posted on Truth Social, Trump declared that “agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came” while American students participating in such protests would face arrest or permanent expulsion. “No masks!” he declared.
Sharansky criticized the previous U.S. administration for failing to enforce antisemitism policies, saying he found President Joe Biden a disappointment in this fight because Biden had failed to recognize the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism adopted in 2016.
“Biden’s administration built the whole system of fighting against antisemitism. But, they undermined all the efforts simply by not saying that they recognize that this international definition of antisemitism, connecting antisemitism and anti-Zionism, is not the only one,” Sharansky said. “They recognized multiple definitions of antisemitism, allowing universities to claim anti-Zionism is not antisemitic.”
Sharansky called rising antisemitism at U.S. universities “a big, big American problem” and said his mission is to turn the “silent majority” of Jews and their supporters into an “open majority.” However, he argued, addressing campus antisemitism requires action from Jewish organizations, university administrators, and above all, the administration. “As long as the American administration will not start working, punishing universities, nothing will change,” he warned.
The second front
Antisemitism has surged worldwide since the Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, with university campuses being the hardest hit. Sharansky called this “the second front” of Israel’s war. “The 7th of October was the biggest tragedy, the biggest pogrom in modern history. The 8th of October, I would say, is a revelation of the real nature of antisemitism connected to progressive movements.”
He told JNS ahead of his scheduled address to some 500 student leaders from 100 American universities at the 2025 Hillel International Israel Summit in Chicago this week that he had taken on a new role to empower and educate Jewish students. His goal is to assess whether the situation is improving. As part of his new “project,” Sharansky said, he wanted “to hear from different universities how the situation is really changing or not changing.”
Sharansky, a prominent human rights activist who is a former Soviet dissident, Israeli Cabinet minister, and chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, became chair of ISGAP in July 2019. ISGAP is an Israeli-funded American nonprofit organization that produces academic research, seminars, and conferences on antisemitism.
In 2003, he famously developed a vital definition for the new antisemitism—the 3d Test—to distinguish legitimate criticism of Israel from antisemitism. The first “D” is the test of demonization, the second —of double standards, and the third—of delegitimization. The third principle was included in the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
The ‘occupied territories’ of academia
Sharansky described American universities as “occupied territories” of academia, overrun by ideological movements that delegitimize Jewish students and their support for Israel.
In the past year, he has been touring university campuses in the United States and Canada, and speaking to Jewish student leaders who have come on missions to Israel. He has been educating them about the inseparability of Zionism and Jewish identity, warning that many of today’s campus voices—which often cloak their hostility under the banner of anti-Zionism—are in fact engaging in blatant antisemitism.
A recent Gallup poll found that only 33% of Democrats support Israel, reflecting the Left’s dominant role in campus anti-Israel activism. “I wrote for years that liberals and progressives are not allies. Progressives are anti-liberal. They have nothing to do with freedom of speech. October 7 showed it in the most powerful way.”
Recalling his visits to North American campuses 22 years ago, Sharansky noted that antisemitism was already taking root then. Middle East Studies departments were becoming centers of anti-Israel propaganda. “I wrote an article, ‘Traveling to Occupied Territories,’ where the occupied territories were American campuses. Then it was a metaphor. Now, it’s a reality.”
Jewish students are often afraid to express their support for Israel. A Harvard Business School graduate told Sharansky she had wanted to sign a pro-Israel letter but feared it would harm her career. “That is always a very alarming sign,” he said. “I knew it from the Soviet Union.”
Leftist ideologies fuel campus antisemitism by framing Israel as an oppressor within the binary worldview of colonialism. “Post-colonialism and the woke movement divide the world into oppressors and oppressed,” Sharansky said. “By definition, we are the last remnant of colonialism. We are always wrong.”
After Oct. 7, Sharansky noted, some American student organizations justified Hamas terrorism, prioritizing ideology over human suffering. “When the rapist is part of the oppressed, and the victim is part of the oppressors, it’s seen as liberation. That’s what 32 Harvard student organizations said on October 8.”
Sharansky likened Jewish involvement in anti-Israel activities to Jews who embraced communism, which subsequently served as a cover for antisemitism. He described progressive Jewish activists who criticize Israel as “puppets” who are “wrong.” Sharansky, alongside historian Gil Troy, has coined these Jews, “Un-Jews,” calling their actions “the Jewish attempt to cancel Israel and Jewish peoplehood.”
In reality, Sharansky said, the so-called “Jewish voices for Palestine” are a tiny minority and urged pro-Israel students to fight against the perception that they comprise a majority. “We have to show the absurdity. But then, what is really important, if you are not afraid to speak out loud, is the fact that there are a few hundred, Jewish voices maybe less than a hundred, for the rights of Hamas at Columbia.”
The rise of Jewish activism
Despite the hostility they encounter, Jewish students are fighting back. According to Sharansky, this represented an improvement over the situation two decades ago when he first visited the campuses. “Since then, there were a lot of things which happened in the past year. I think the good thing we can say is that, exactly as our crisis started from the fact that there were Jews who were afraid to speak 20 years ago. Now, we see more and more Jews who are ready to speak and to fight.”
At Columbia University, he noted, over 500 students signed a letter defending Zionism. Harvard students took legal action to recognize Zionism as part of Jewish identity. Sharansky dubbed them “the 500,” celebrating their “proud and open dissent” a “landmark in the struggle to escape a stifling regime of doublethink.” Sharansky observed, “For the first time, we see more Jews ready to speak and fight.”
Sharansky called for the numbers to grow and for more and more students to stand up and defend Zionism. “Among 6,000 Jews in Columbia, only 500 are ready to speak loudly. That’s important. We have to work so that, maybe not 500, but 2,000, 3,000; half of the Jews will be ready to speak loudly.”
He also urged Jewish students to unmask antisemitic professors and expose their antisemitism. “Universities are turning academic courses into platforms for anti-Israel propaganda,” he said.
Legal and financial pressure
Legal action and financial pressure are crucial, Sharansky said. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination, and Jewish organizations are using it to hold universities accountable. Recent court rulings in Boston and Los Angeles set a precedent for punishing institutions that fail to address antisemitism. As Sharansky noted, they “are very much in the favor of our struggle. So we have to continue it.”
He added: “Strong statements are not enough. If we don’t punish those who demand the removal of all Zionists from universities, nothing will change. Jews should consider attending other universities or even building their own.”
Jewish donors play a critical role. “Jewish names are on university buildings everywhere. After October 7, donors started pulling their funding. That’s important. For years, donors told me they couldn’t withdraw funding because it wasn’t ‘the Jewish way.’ That attitude was damaging. Universities knew they could continue anti-Israel propaganda without financial consequences. Now, that’s changing.”
Sharansky’s advice to the Jewish community, parents, and students: “Stop sending your students to the universities which refuse to cooperate. Antisemitism today is on every university. But there are universities where the administration is ready to cooperate, to fight against it. Those which are absolutely not ready. So make your decisions not only on the official label, Yale and Harvard and so on, but on the practical situation.”
A call to action
Sharansky outlined a multi-pronged strategy to combat campus antisemitism:
• Jewish Students Must Speak Out: Silence emboldens aggressors. Students must document and expose antisemitic incidents.
• University Donors Must Reconsider Contributions: Funding should be conditional on universities protecting Jewish students.
• Legal Action Must Continue: We should file more lawsuits to uphold anti-discrimination laws.
• Universities Must Be Held Accountable: Governments should impose financial penalties on institutions that fail to act.
• Jewish Organizations Must Step Up: To provide students with legal and financial support, better coordination is required.
Sharansky called for stronger coordination among Jewish organizations. “Twenty years ago, Jewish groups ignored campus antisemitism. Now, they recognize its importance. We need better coordination and funding for student advocacy.”
The battle against antisemitism on campus is far from over, but there is a growing recognition that action must be taken, Sharansky said. Jewish students and their allies must continue to challenge the status quo, ensuring that universities remain spaces of true academic freedom rather than ideological echo chambers that silence pro-Israel voices. As Sharansky poignantly noted, history has shown that when Jewish communities fail to speak out against rising antisemitism, the consequences can be dire. Now is the time for Jewish students, donors, legal advocates and political leaders to come together and reclaim the right to be openly Jewish and Zionist in the academic world, Sharansky said.