In a recent poll commissioned by the Israel on Campus Coalition, 74% of Jewish college students believe that antisemitism is a serious problem on campus, 30% reported experiencing antisemitism, 29% reported witnessing an antisemitic event and 22% reported hearing about antisemitic events. Some 87% of Jewish college students are concerned that anti-Israel protests and petitions to boycott the State of Israel lead to hate crimes and violence against Jewish students. “This data is a wake-up call demanding urgent action from university leaders,” said Jacob Baime, CEO of ICC.
Why it matters?
The Trump administration recently canceled $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University due to reported antisemitic harassment on the New York City campus.
The government is also reviewing $5 billion in additional grants over Columbia’s alleged failure to combat rising antisemitism on campus.
Trump’s Education Secretary has warned over 60 colleges of possible penalties from pending investigations into antisemitism on campus.
Trump has threatened to deport, and imprison foreign students for “illegal protests.”
Antisemitism on campus: Trump administration reevaluates college aid
Rising antisemitic incidents on US college campuses have led the federal government to look at possible civil rights violations against Jewish students. US President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January that restored a similar order he signed in 2019, instructing the Department of Education to investigate colleges that receive federal funding if they failed to protect Jewish students and staff from antisemitism.
"All federal funding will STOP for any College, School or University that allows illegal protests," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS!"
The arrest of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, who was a fixture in the pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the college campus, has launched Trump’s campaign to deport non-US citizens who took part in protests identified as support for Hamas and promoting antisemitic harassment of Jewish students.
Trump administration investigates universities as sources of antisemitism
The US Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation into antisemitism at the University of California. The federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism said the probe will investigate whether the university system has violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination.
In addition to the investigation of antisemitism at the University of California, the Trump administration announced on Monday a multi-agency review of the federal government’s $51.4 million in contracts with Columbia University, citing the academic institution’s “ongoing inaction in the face of relentless harassment of Jewish students.” A press release on the review stated that the agencies “will also conduct a comprehensive review of the more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments to Columbia University to ensure the university is in compliance with federal regulations, including its civil rights responsibilities.”
The Biden administration’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, Deborah Lipstadt, wrote that she had been seriously considering teaching as a visiting professor at Columbia University next year. She has changed her mind, saying, “Doing so would mean putting myself and my students at risk.”
In an article for the Free Press, Lipstadt wrote, “Watching Barnard capitulate to mob violence and fail to enforce its own rules and regulations led me to conclude that I could not go to Columbia University, even for a single semester. The university created an Antisemitism Task Force to explore the problem on campus. [It is] led by three distinguished faculty members and with the participation of a number of longtime Columbia professors. They interviewed hundreds of Jewish and Israeli students and repeatedly heard complaints that the university community has not treated them with the standards of civility, respect, and fairness it promises to all its students. Its report, issued in August 2024, makes for stunning reading. It found that the problems were “serious and pervasive.”
Columbia University is the most well-known example of worsening conditions for Jewish students, it is not the only university dealing with problems of antisemitism on its campus. For Jewish students to feel safe concrete changes need to be made.
Uri Pilichowski is an author, speaker, and senior educator at institutions around the world.