Analysis
Survey of Jewish staff shows the US academy is ‘broken’
A new report details anti Jewish activity on campus
September 26, 2025 15:10
2 min read
A new report details anti Jewish activity on campus
September 26, 2025 15:10Jewish students’ hair-raising campus experiences since October 7 have been well documented, but Jewish university teachers haven’t had it easy either. A new report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Academic Engagement Network (AEN) – faculty and administrators combating antisemitism, while supporting academic freedom and Israel education – details their experiences.
Conducted between April and July, this anonymous survey provides insights from 209 Jewish-identifying university staff members in America. There are five main findings. First, university employees fuel problems: “73.2 per cent of the surveyed faculty reported observing anti-Jewish activities or statements from faculty, administrators or staff.”
Respondents with a “Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) chapter on their campus” reported FJP had “engaged in anti-Israel programming (77.2 per cent), organised anti-Israel protests and demonstrations (79.4 per cent), and endorsed anti-Israel divestment campaigns (84.8 per cent). Unofficial boycotts are rampant, with 55.2 per cent reporting departments not “co-sponsoring events with Jewish or pro-Israel groups and 29.5 per cent report[ing] that partnerships with Israeli institutions and/or academics are discouraged or blocked.”
Jews face unwelcome explanations, with 63.6 per cent of respondents having been “told by others on campus what is and is not antisemitism.” Leaders mishandle “antisemitism or anti-Israel bias,” with 53.1 per cent of respondents calling their university’s reaction “‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ unhelpful” and 77.3 per cent saying the same about associations. And “sustained hostility, harassment, ostracism, gaslighting, and the absence of institutional support” has harmed Jewish faculty’s “mental and physical health, increased self-censorship, fear for personal safety, and” career concerns, with 37.8 per cent concealing “their Jewish and/or Zionist identity from others on campus.”
AMCHA Initiative Director Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, whose organisation tracks campus antisemitism, commented, “The ADL/AEN faculty survey, which reflects faculty perceptions, corroborates the objective data obtained last year by AMCHA Initiative showing that Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) is driving campus antisemitism.” AMCHA “found that on campuses with FSJP chapters, anti-Israel protests and encampments lasted longer, student governments were more likely to pass divestment resolutions, and calls for academic BDS were far more likely to be included in student demands.”
AMCHA’s study found Jewish students at schools with FSJP chapters were 7.3 times more likely to be physically assaulted and 3.4 times more likely to be targeted with violent threats.” Rossman-Benjamin continued, “FSJP’s unchecked activism is a clear and present danger to Jewish students, faculty, and the academic mission itself.”
Andrew Pessin, philosophy professor at Connecticut College, who’s written about campus anti-zionism/antisemitism, says the report rings true. “Among the many factors that contributed to the explosion of Jew-hatred on our campuses, particularly after October 7, the rapid rise to dominance of progressive ideology over the past 15-plus years is a significant one, and that can be sourced mainly to the faculty. The very existence of ‘Faculty for Justice in Palestine’ chapters, and the rapid increase in the number of those chapters, tells you . . . the academy is broken, as far too many faculties (and the administrators who allow and openly support them) have replaced scholarship with activism and done so in service to today’s primary manifestation of antisemitism.”
The report concludes with 12 recommendations, including “fostering a learning atmosphere of civility and tolerance” and “encourag[ing] the analysis of contentious issues from a range of perspectives, and foster[ing] dialogue across difference,” plus an offer to be a resource.
These suggestions raise two big questions. First, these proposals could appeal to conservatives, who already believe the academy is closed-minded and discriminatory. But would campus Zionists worry about the optics within universities’ almost entirely left-wing ecosystems? Zionism is already being re-coded as “right-wing” by the anti-Israel left. Second, after the summer’s blow-up at a major teachers’ union’s annual meeting over whether to shun ADL, can ADL still effect change? ADL’s held sway as a Jewish organisation within the left-wing coalition, but many people stigmatising campus Jews want to marginalise ADL too.
AEN will keep working for change from the inside. But other Americans must pressure universities from the outside, because the status quo is intolerable.
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