Just two US universities are doing enough to fight antisemitism on campuses, according to an eye-opening report that graded colleges on their policies to protect Jewish students — while 13 of the nation’s most elite schools, including Harvard and Princeton, were given an “F.”
The Anti-Defamation League reviewed 85 of America’s top universities and those with the highest proportion of Jewish students. The only schools to receive an “A” grade for fighting Jew-hatred were Brandeis University in Massachusetts and Elon University in North Carolina.
Meanwhile, the leading Jewish civil rights group gave fat “F” grades to more than a dozen of the country’s top institutions, including Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton, Stanford, the Universities of Chicago, Virginia, North Carolina, Tufts University, and SUNY’s Purchase and Rockland campuses.
“As I travel the country, I’m constantly hearing from Jewish families agonizing over where they will send their kids to college,” ADL’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said.
“School leadership must make serious changes to support Jewish communities on their campus; we expect nothing less.”
The unsettling report card documented 746 alleged anti-semitic incidents at the 85 campuses.
Reports of antisemitism on US college campuses have skyrocketed amid the Israel-Hamas war and a proliferation of protests in support of either Israel or the Palestinians.
The ADL’s review praised Brandeis for being the first private university to revoke official recognition of its Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter, due to the controversial group’s hostile activity on campus in the wake of the October 7 attacks.
The Massachusetts school also made clear that antisemitic phrases such as “From the River to the Sea” are deemed hate speech and are contrary to the university’s principles.
The ADL also commended Elon University for providing opportunities for students and faculty to learn about Hamas’ attack and encouraging respectful and informed dialogue.
Meanwhile, two dozen schools received disappointing “D” grades, including Ivy League institutions Columbia, Brown, Yale, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania.
Rutgers University, the University of California at Berkeley, UCLA, Johns Hopkins, Barnard College, the University of Michigan, and SUNY New Paltz also scored “D” grades.
Seventeen colleges earned a “B” grade, including New York’s CUNY’s Brooklyn College, and Hofstra University, while 29 were given a “C”, including New York University, Queens College, and Syracuse.
Among the disturbing incidents reported on top US college campuses include numerous anti-Israel protests spewing antisemitic rhetoric.
At Harvard, some pro-Palestinian student groups immediately blamed Israel for Hamas’s brutal sneak attack on the Jewish State. The Ivy League’s former president, Claudine Gay, then refused to say that anyone calling for the genocide of Jews at the university would be punished in disastrous congressional testimony in December.
Jewish students at Columbia reported being spat on and subjected to antisemitic rhetoric including “F–k the Jews.”
In October 2023, an Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside of the university’s library after confronting a perpetrator for ripping down flyers of Israeli hostages held by the terror group.
Columbia also received calls to remove Professor Joseph Massad after he described Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel as a “resistance offensive” to “Israeli settler-colonialism and racism toward the Palestinians.”
Cornell encountered a few of the most high-profile antisemitic incidents on campus last fall, including when a student threatened to shoot and stab Jewish students and attack the campus’ kosher dining hall.
In addition, a Cornell professor, Russel Rickford, said at a campus rally that he was “exhilarated” by the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel.
“Like all students, Jewish students deserve to feel safe and supported on campus. They deserve a learning environment free from antisemitism and hate. But that hasn’t been the experience with antisemitism running rampant on campus since even before October 7,” Greenblatt said.
“At a time when antisemitic incidents on campus are at historic levels, administrators need to adopt new policies to address this scourge and have the willingness to enforce existing codes of conduct to ensure all students are safe.”
