8 No. 72 JUSTICE begin by providing some context on the rise in antisemitism in America and American higher education, and then I will talk about the work that we are doing at Brandeis to help address this reality. Over the past decade, we have seen a marked increase in antisemitism on many American campuses, mirroring what was happening in American society at large. The rise, often attributed to the emergence of Donald Trump as a major voice in American politics, came predominantly from the political right—or at least the focus of attention was primarily on the right. Trump’s common use of tropes and memes, often exaggerated and outlandish, went well beyond the norms of common public discourse and set new standards for what others would say and do in public. A good example of that was the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, where white supremacists marched and chanted “Jews will not replace us.” This slogan is rooted in the white supremacist belief that non-whites, controlled by Jews, or Jews themselves, will eventually dilute the white population and ultimately replace it. Several other far right incidences of Jew hatred followed Charlottesville. Incidents of antisemitism from the left were hardly absent during this period, even before Charlottesville, but they were more subtle. They were what we might call “passive Jew hatred,” which became far more explicit following October 7, as prior to the Hamas attack, many incidents were cloaked by using Israel as an effective, surrogate target. The best example was the rise in popularity of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) movement on campuses across the U.S. and within professional academic associations. Though BDS was founded in 2005, its roots are traced to the NGO Forum at the “2001 World Conference Against Racism” in Durban, South Africa—the same gathering at which Israel was declared an apartheid state. BDS resolutions began in earnest in 2009, though calls to divest from companies that profit from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza began as early as 2002. The divisive debates on campuses served an important purpose, and that was to foster anti-Israel and sometimes antisemitic sentiment among students, faculty, and alumni. That is, the goal was and often remains less about succeeding in achieving divestment, and more about keeping the discussion on the front burner to shine a bright and negative light on Israel for more to see. Fast forward to October 7, and what had in the past been seen as “one-off” and muted antisemitic incidents, largely viewed as limited to the academy’s extreme progressive circles, was now unmasked and normalized. The protests, which erupted right after the Hamas attack, were extremely effective in vilifying Israel and, by association, Jews who identified as supporting Israel, and eventually any Jews—whether or not they claimed to be Zionists. These protests post-October 7 garnered broad support rapidly, and far more quickly than the far right’s often vile and sometimes violent public displays of antisemitism. As of May 2024, more than eighty pro-Palestinian encampments had been set up at American colleges and universities. At more than seventy of these schools, violence and arrests have occurred. As of June 6, more than 3,000 students had been arrested nationwide. The Anti-Defamation League reported that antisemitic incidents on U.S. college campuses spiked by a staggering 321 percent (to 922 incidents) this year, most of which occurred after the October 7 terrorist attacks. The causes for the remarkable popularity of what are generously but largely inaccurately billed as “proAntisemitism in Higher Education in the U.S. – Understanding the Issue and Facing the Challenges* Ronald D. Liebowitz * This is an edited version of a lecture delivered at the 21st Herzliya Conference: “On the Path of Strategic Surprises,” at Reichman University; panel on “The War in Gaza: Its Impact on Israel’s Status Internationally and Soaring Antisemitism as an Evolving Threat,” June 25, 2024. I
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