Adelphi University, a private school in Garden City, N.Y., put the campus Students for Justice in Palestine chapter on “disciplinary probation for a year” after determining that it would be “reasonable to infer” that a Jew who viewed the group’s social media posts “may feel targeted or unsafe.”
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law posted a letter that Adelphi’s community concerns and resolution office sent to the center’s client, Israeli-American math and computer science professor Tuval Foguel, who filed a complaint against the SJP chapter. The university told Foguel that it determined that the student group “created a hostile environment towards the Jewish community.”
The university flagged social media posts of the chapter, including one that stated, “One year since Oct. 7. What have we learned about this historic day since it happened?” Another stated, “long live the intifada,” and another said that “Israel is a terror state, and all its supporters are Zionists terrorists.” (JNS sought comment from Adelphi.)
Adelphi told the professor that the student group will be on probation from Thursday until Aug. 7, 2026. In the next year, the group will be under “increased scrutiny,” and any violations of the probation could result in “suspension or revocation of recognition by the university.” The group will also have to meet with the university by Sept. 15 “to discuss appropriate social media use.”
Rory Lancman, director of corporate initiatives and senior counsel at the Brandeis Center, told JNS that Adelphi placed the SJP chapter on interim suspension in April pending the investigation. The suspension is considered to be “time served,” he said.
Lancman called the school’s decision “significant” because “you can’t solve a problem without defining it or delineating it.”
“For the university to draw some clear lines in the sand for what kind of expression and conduct is inappropriate and not going to be tolerated enables the Jewish community on campus to demand enforcement and actions against the people who cross that line,” he said.
Foguel, the professor, told JNS that the decision “is an important step in the right direction,” but “there is much more Adelphi and other institutions can do in order to combat antisemitism.”
“I hope today’s ruling will also serve as an example to other universities that harassment cannot be tolerated,” he told JNS. “Differences of opinion are one thing, but when a group crosses the line into harassment of other students due to their ethnicity, it becomes completely unacceptable and a clear violation of the law.”
