Weaponizing Jewish Safety on Campus
When a politician has…
❌ said “Hitler did some good things”
❌ used Hitler’s hateful rhetoric and Nazi imagery for the past 10 years
❌ granted clemency to openly antisemitic, white supremacist perpetuators of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack
❌ appointed as his senior advisor a far-right, Nazi-saluting billionaire who endorses antisemitic conspiracy theories
…it’s evident that this politician does NOT actually care about the safety of Jewish people.
By weaponizing Jewish safety as a justification for dismantling Title VI, DEI, and civil rights, the extremist Trump administration may appear to be fighting antisemitism. In reality, it is advancing an agenda that PROTECTS white supremacy, represses student activism, and weakens multiethnic coalitions for justice.
I agree with those who argue that many universities have done a poor job responding to antisemitism; I was a professor for 20+ years and experienced this myself. At the same time, I strongly believe that colleges have a responsibility to protect all of their students and their constitutional right to protest and speak out.
I think two things can be true at the same time. Higher education has a history of avoidance & denial in the face of anti-Jewish oppression AND conservatives are leveraging antisemitism in their witch hunt to punish supposedly leftist universities and end DEI. In my own work, I strive to fight against the real harms of antisemitism while also calling out those who have turned it into a political football.
Investigating colleges and universities under the premise of “protecting Jewish students” reduces these institutions’ capacity to address antisemitism as a systemic issue — leaving Jewish students MORE vulnerable to discrimination, harassment, and bias.
ID: Pro-Palestinian demonstrators and counterprotestors on the Columbia University campus in New York, on Oct. 12, 2023. Image credit: Bing Guan—The New York Times/Redux
#NotInMyName #antisemitism #DEI #HigherEducation #DefendDemocracy #UnitedAgainstFascism
