Latest News from Campus

During a virtual lecture given by an Israeli professor at Queens College, a handful of attendees reportedly shouted antisemitic expressions including “kill all the Jews” and “go back to Auschwitz,” and displayed disturbing images on their screens. The professor and moderator restored order, removed the disruptors, and continued the lecture. Queens College denounced the incident in a public statement.

Hillel of Broward and Palm Beach and Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Catholic Owls group held a collaborative dinner to encourage meaningful conversations between Jewish and Catholic students at FAU about faith, culture, and community. The organizations paired games like trivia about Catholic and Jewish traditions with guided discussion, and provided a kosher taco bar for dinner.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst placed a planned academic conference under review after learning that the Coalition of Women in German (WiG), a literature association, had adopted a policy blocking scholars who receive funding from Israeli institutions. The university found that the conference violated its non‑discrimination rules and required WiG to suspend the policy.

The University of Oregon announced that its recent round of layoffs to address a $29 million deficit will not eliminate any tenured or tenure‐track faculty, nor will it cut degree programs, including Judaic Studies and Holocaust Studies, despite earlier concerns from faculty.

Jewish college students are increasingly choosing universities in the South and Southwest, citing concerns about antisemitism and campus climate, among other reasons. In an article for The Atlantic, reporter Rose Horowitch writes that data gathered by Hillel International indicates a 3–5% decline in Jewish undergraduate enrollment at schools like Harvard, Columbia, and Penn from 2023 to 2025. In contrast, universities such as Vanderbilt, Emory, and Tulane have seen significant growth in Jewish student populations, with some institutions doubling their Jewish enrollment during the same period.

The U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce initiated investigations into the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the University of Illinois. The committee is examining allegations of antisemitic incidents and the institutions’ responses to them.