The encampments have vanished from most campuses, the headlines have quieted and the incident numbers are technically lower, yet the current climate is just as nefarious. Anti-Jewish hate did not disappear from American schools. It merely mutated.
Open confrontations and attacks on Jewish students were not replaced with peace and inclusion; they morphed into normalization. Jewish students were marginalized, isolated and made to feel like pariahs on too many campuses. This onslaught against Jews on campus did not begin after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel Oct. 7, 2023. That’s just when it got much worse.
Hillel is under attack
For a century, Hillel has been a home away from home for Jewish students to find community. From local events to Shabbat dinners, a safe haven for Jews has now become a target.
Students for Justice in Palestine, whose funding networks include groups with reported ties to Hamas-linked organizations, is leading a campaign called Drop Hillel. SJP is pushing university student governments to defund and sever ties with a campus organization that exists solely to support Jewish students. The campaign has been falsely promoted as being Jewish-led; its architect is SJP.
At The New School in New York City, just blocks from New York University at Washington Square Park, the student senate recently voted to defund Hillel and revoke its recognition—the first time a student government has moved to officially cut ties with a campus Hillel. The senate vote was a “painful antisemitic” attempt to isolate Jewish belonging on campus.
The Council on American Islamic Relations-New York applauded the move as a “necessary step.” CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation Hamas terrorism-financing trial and faces multiple federal and state investigations.
The New School’s administration blocked the vote and pledged “immediate steps” to prevent similar incidents. The Jewish Community Relations Council of New York praised the school’s “swift rejection.”
Jewish students are not the only ones being marginalized. A House Education committee report found that faculty face “soft” or “shadow” boycotts—academic departments declining to co-sponsor events with Jewish or pro-Israel groups. The recently formed Faculty Against Antisemitism Movement is pushing back.
Progressive Jewish student group is rejected
At Sarah Lawrence College, 20 miles north of New York City, something more telling happened. Jewish student Emilyn Toffler spent months trying to form a chapter of J Street U to have conversations with her classmates about Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
J Street is a progressive group that describes itself as “pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian and pro-peace.” The organization loudly opposes the current Israeli government, challenges U.S. military aid to Israel and its leader stated that Israel may be committing genocide, a false charge.
The student senate rejected the application anyway, comparing J Street U to “a white supremacist organization.” The group’s appeal also was denied. The college’s administration has defended its refusal to intervene. Toffler recently graduated, disappointed that “we never got approval. I think we could have positively contributed to the political conversation on campus.”
She was not asking to defend Israeli policy. She was promoting co-existence on campus and in the Holy Land.
The social cost of refusing to go along with the anti-Israel narrative extends beyond Jewish students. At the University of Wisconsin in Madison, student representative Jianda Ni abstained on an anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions resolution. The law student worried that the rushed bill would increase the already existing fear among Jewish students. After he spoke his mind, a friend from the anti-Israel side cut off communication with him. This is what the mutation of antisemitism looks like.
Graduation 2026: Conflict and consequences
Commencement is supposed to be the one day that belongs to all graduating students. This year, while incidents declined across the country, many Jewish students still encountered a different experience.
Morton Schapiro withdrew as Georgetown University Law commencement speaker after 282 students petitioned for his removal, calling his opinions “controversial, Zionist and harmful.” The former Northwestern University president had written critically of how progressives, university leaders and the media vilified Israel during the war. Georgetown refused the student request, but replaced him with a professor who condemned the Anti-Defamation League and the Brandeis Center for trying to protect Jewish students a few weeks after Oct. 7.
University of Michigan faculty senate chair Derek Peterson used his commencement address to praise pro-Palestinian student protesters, departing from his pre-approved remarks. The professor opened by invoking the memory of Moritz Levi, the university’s first Jewish professor, appointed in 1896. He then pivoted to politics and activists that have often targeted Jewish students: “Sing for the pro-Palestinian student activists who have, over these past two years, opened our hearts to the injustice and inhumanity of Israel’s war in Gaza.” The audience cheered. The university apologized for his comments.
The student government at the University of California Law San Francisco set up an order form for a graduation keffiyeh—a symbolic Palestinian headscarf. The student leaders encouraged faculty and students to wear them and Palestine pins at commencement as a “show of support with Palestinian students, faculty and communities.” The form also acknowledged that students have “expressed fear of conveying their identity and their beliefs” on campus. At campuses across the country, many Jewish students continue to hide who they are, while most of those who target them do not. It’s a false equivalency.
Rutgers University in New Jersey drew a different line. When its invited commencement speaker was found to have posted that Israelis “train dogs to sexually assault prisoners”—a claim with no basis in fact and a blood libel against Jews—the university canceled his invitation.
Points to consider:
1. Campus antisemitism mutated, yet Jewish students are still paying the price.
The encampments came down, headlines moved on, recorded incidents declined—and too many people exhaled. Anti-Jewish hate did not retreat from American campuses. It mutated. What replaced open confrontation is harder to see: Jewish students are hiding their necklaces, staying silent in class and losing their friends. Students watch their speech for fear that their professors will lower their grades in class. The antisemitism virus has spread, and there is no vaccine in sight.
2. The campus hate movement has a sponsor, and it’s not students.
When a student senate votes to defund Hillel or a campus erupts in anti-Israel protests, it can look like organic activism, but it’s usually not. American Muslims for Palestine, which funds National Students for Justice in Palestine, was founded by individuals who previously worked for U.S. nonprofits shut down or found civilly liable for funding Hamas. On Oct. 8, 2023—one day after the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel, AMP and SJP declared they were “part of a Unity Intifada under Hamas’s unified command.” Multiple state attorneys general are currently investigating AMP. This is not a student movement. It is a coordinated campaign being waged against Jewish students on American campuses.
3. Antizionism is antisemitism: A liberal arts college just proved it.
At Sarah Lawrence College in New York, the student senate blocked the creation of a J Street chapter and compared it to “a white supremacist organization.” J Street opposes the Israeli government and challenges U.S. military aid. If this is white supremacy, there is no version of Jewish identity and Zionism that these movements will accept. Former anti-Zionist and liberal atheist Kile Jones recently wrote: “Antizionism is the most socially acceptable way to express antisemitism.” This was never about any Israeli policies. It is about whether Jewish students have the right to openly exist on campus at all.
4. Campus antisemitism is not a Jewish problem, but one for all Americans.
Jianda Ni lost a friend. The non-Jewish law student simply abstained on an anti-Israel resolution because he did not want to increase fear among Jewish students. This is the cost of conscience in today’s America. When student governments weaponize their platforms, professors use their authority to advance political agendas, and universities look the other way, the damage extends far beyond the Jewish community. Free inquiry, open debate and institutional integrity are at risk.
5. Pushback works when university leaders do their job.
The New School’s administration blocked its student senate’s vote to defund Hillel. Rutgers University canceled its commencement speaker after he posted false claims about Israelis. The University of Michigan apologized after its faculty senate chair went off-script at graduation to praise anti-Israel protesters. These actions are proof that when administrators choose to act, they can. The question is whether they will before more Jewish students decide it is safer to hide their identity.
