Cornell president’s leaked criticism of Gaza class prompts new row over academic freedom

Cornell University’s Jewish interim president is facing growing blowback from higher education groups over emails published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last month, in which he raised objections to an upcoming class on Gaza. Michael Kotlikoff’s remarks, which (JEWISH REVIEW) reported on Nov. 11, were a violation of academic freedom, say representatives of the American […]

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Deportations, lawsuits, increased scrutiny: How the Trump administration could handle campus antisemitism

Jewish parents in Maryland’s Montgomery County have no clue how their school district’s antisemitism investigation is proceeding.  It’s been more than nine months since the U.S. Department of Education opened its Title VI civil rights probe into reports of antisemitic bullying, including at pro-Palestinian student protests, at the suburban Maryland district. The case was one […]

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‘Wanted’ posters at U of Rochester target Hillel director, Netanyahu’s brother and others with ‘ties’ to Israel

When the director of the local Jewish federation first saw the hundreds of red, white and black posters plastered around the University of Rochester’s campus last weekend, an eerie comparison came to her mind. They “looked a little bit like the ‘Kidnapped’ posters,” recalled Meredith Dragon of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester, referring to […]

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Cornell’s handling of a new course on Gaza could preview campus Israel battles under Trump

Three weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack in Israel, a Jewish professor at Cornell University named Eric Cheyfitz offered a “teach-in” titled “Gaza, Settler Colonialism, and the Global War Against Indigenous People.” Just before the teach-in, the school’s Jewish provost called him and asked if he wanted extra security. Like other scholars of […]

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Should outsiders step in to address campus antisemitism? The question is dividing Jews at the U of Washington.

As a pro-Palestinian encampment settled in on the University of Washington’s Seattle campus this spring, Jewish studies professor Devin Naar was doing something he’d never done before: teaching a class on antisemitism, the first offered at his school in more than a decade. “It was the hardest class I’ve ever taught, and maybe the most […]

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UCLA allowed antisemitism to fester amid pro-Palestinian protests, task force concludes

A new report from a campus antisemitism task force accused the pro-Palestinian movement at the University of California, Los Angeles of triggering a torrent of abuse directed at Jewish and Israeli students, faculty and staff.  The 93-page report, released Tuesday by UCLA’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias, said Jews on campus were […]

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Some universities agreed to consider divesting from Israel — but aren’t giving protesters what they wanted

One day before its meeting earlier this month, the University of Washington Board of Regents postponed a highly consequential item that was on its agenda: a vote related to an Israel divestment proposal. But if the public university in Seattle hoped to curb disruptions at the meeting, it didn’t work. Protesters, many of them motivated […]

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