Grinspoon Hillel at Cornell broke ground on a new, state-of the -art Jewish student center, Harkavy Hall, which will serve as a hub for Jewish life on campus. The 24,000-square-foot building will include a Beit Midrash for Torah study, a kosher café, event space for Shabbat dinners, and areas for community gatherings.
A recent event at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, hosted by the college’s Muslim Student Association, featured a speaker who has shared posts online promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories. Sheikh Abdelrahman Badawy circulated videos and posts in the past several weeks containing anti-Jewish conspiracies and mocking the Holocaust.
Tufts Hillel dedicated two Torah scrolls in a campus celebration marking a new chapter of Jewish life at Tufts University. Students, staff, and community members gathered for the ceremony, which included music, a procession with the Torah scrolls, and the completion of the final letters of both scrolls.
A New York state judge overturned disciplinary sanctions against current and former Columbia University students who participated in the 2024 occupation of Hamilton Hall during an anti-Israel protest. The court ruled the university improperly relied on sealed arrest records when issuing suspensions, expulsions, and degree revocations. Columbia officials said they are reviewing the decision and considering next steps.
University of Chicago student and Hillel student leader Jake Rymer was instrumental in the Chicago City Council’s recent adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. The council voted to include the definition in Chicago’s municipal code, creating a clearer framework for identifying antisemitic discrimination. Chicago is the second-largest city in the United States to codify the IHRA definition of antisemitism, after Los Angeles.
Police are investigating a reported hate crime targeting the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi at California Polytechnic State University. According to university officials, a group of men drove by the fraternity house, shouted antisemitic slurs, entered the property, and one suspect punched a resident during a confrontation before fleeing. The San Luis Obispo Police Department is working to identify the suspects as the investigation continues. Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong said in a message to students and faculty that “hateful acts that target members of our Jewish community are hurtful, disgusting and simply unacceptable,” adding that antisemitism “has no place at our university.”