By José Niño
From campus protests to federal funding freezes, the fight over anti-Semitism is reshaping American higher education—and some Jewish academics have decided to fight back.
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Three Jewish academics—Brooke Lober, Eli Meyerhoff, and Emily Schneider—authored a blog post for the American Association of University Professors’ Academe titled “It’s Not Too Late to Tell the Truth About Anti-Semitism on Campus,” pushing back against the Trump administration’s efforts to suppress campus speech deemed “anti-Semitic.”
The authors of this post challenged what they call “the big lie”—the characterization of campus protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza as fundamentally anti-Semitic. These academics argue this framing distorts reality and serves the political purpose of spreading “a lie to distract from and crush dissent over Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.”
The authors contend that while they would “fight” anti-Semitism if it were pervasive on campuses, they “have observed no such thing.” Instead, they argue that “criticism of the state of Israel is not anti-Semitic” and suggest that conflating the two represents a deliberate strategy to suppress political dissent.
This perspective directly contradicts the Trump administration’s position, which frames campus anti-genocide activism as part of a dangerous rise in anti-Semitism requiring federal intervention.
The Trump administration has implemented an extraordinary campaign targeting elite universities through financial penalties. According to a New York Times report, seven universities have been specifically identified for punitive funding reductions or warnings about their federal support being in jeopardy.
President Donald Trump himself has further threatened Harvard’s tax-exempt status, writing last month on his social media platform Truth Social:
Perhaps Harvard should lose its tax exempt status and be taxed as a political entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting “Sickness?” Remember, tax exempt status is totally contingent on acting in the public interest!
“It’s certainly unprecedented and deeply disturbing,” declared John King Jr., former secretary of education under President Barack Obama and current chancellor of the State University of New York system, in an interview with Inside Higher Ed. Trump’s actions, he says:
… really threaten the long-standing partnership between the federal government and higher education in the pursuit of both innovation and economic mobility.
The scope of these funding freezes is extensive. Harvard University has seen over $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts frozen. Columbia University has had $400 million frozen, and funds have also been frozen at Northwestern, Cornell, Brown, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania. The latter is experiencing a $175 million freeze related to violations of transgender athlete restrictions.
Beyond direct funding cuts, the administration has also launched a sweeping investigative campaign against institutions that aren’t doing enough to fight the alleged scourge of anti-Semitism.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has already sent letters to 60 colleges and universities warning of potential enforcement actions if they fail to fulfill obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students.
Additionally, a Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, formed in early 2025, announced visits to 10 university campuses that “experienced anti-Semitic incidents.” This task force includes representatives from the Department of Justice and other agencies.
Per Inside Higher Ed, the Department of Education has launched or actively pursued nearly 100 investigations concerning alleged anti-Semitism and diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which could imperil institutions’ access to federal financial aid.
Free speech advocates and higher education organizations have expressed alarm about these actions.
Princeton University President Chris Eisgruber described the administration’s approach as entering a “whole new territory.” He says:
The government was using its tremendous power over research dollars to try to control what a private university was doing in terms of matters that are generally considered part of academic freedom.
Former Harvard President and Treasury Secretary Larry Summers condemned the threat to remove Harvard’s tax-exempt status, stating:
Any self-respecting Treasury secretary would resign rather than have the department be complicit in the weaponization of the IRS against a political adversary of the president.
For their part, Lober, Meyerhoff, and Schneider believe that a more balanced and truthful account of the campus climate that considers the broader backdrop of the Gaza tragedy and the heightened tensions it has ignited is needed in these times of mass polarization.
They noted that the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023—when Palestinian militant groups launched an uprising against the Israeli occupation during which Israeli civilians and military members were killed—has many Jews on edge.
However, these Jewish academics believe that the Trump administration has advanced an oversimplified narrative that blames campus unrest on anti-Semitism not Israeli brutality. They argue that this distortion not only misrepresents the root causes of campus conflicts but also legitimizes the threats and violence faced by students such as Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian-born Palestinian activist and graduate student at Columbia University. Khalil is currently awaiting deportation for protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Instead, these academics have called for more robust discourse that champions “the liberation of all people,” while also rejecting the “big lie” the Trump administration has advanced concerning the fictional rise of anti-Semitism in universities across the country.
The battle lines are drawn. Will universities bend to political pressure, or will they stand firm in defense of free inquiry and open debate? Time will be the judge.
