ADL Launches Partnership to Combat Antisemitism in Higher Education

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is partnering with the Jewish Graduate Organization (JGO) to fight antisemitism in post-undergraduate education, according to a press release issued on Wednesday.

The initiative will see the ADL share “resources, specialized training for staff,” and “educational opportunities” with JGO, which was founded in 2011 with the aim of supporting Jewish students pursuing advanced degrees. Such students have been under strain since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel set off an explosion of antisemitism on college campuses across the country, as they have been forced to manage their studies in hostile environments in which antisemitic discrimination and harassment is now normalized.

“Students are facing horrific levels of antisemitic harassment on campus, so this partnership could not come at a more important moment for Jewish students and those moving into the workforce,” ADL chief executive officer Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “We are seeing a rise in antisemitism on grad school campuses across the country, and recognize the unique work that GO is doing to support Jewish grad students during these challenging times.”

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, antisemitism in graduate schools around the country has led to high profile lawsuits and civil rights complaints.

In August, the Graduate Student Union (GSU) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) settled a discrimination lawsuit in which its Jewish members accused union officials of coercing them into paying union dues, which they had refused to do after it endorsed the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. According to court documents, GSU bosses browbeat the students, telling them, presumptuously, that “no principles, teachings, or tenets of Judaism prohibit membership in or the payment of dues or fees to a labor union.” With the settlement of their case, they were released from an obligation which they said violated their core beliefs and freedom of association.

Harvard University is also being sued for allegedly ignoring the antisemitic conduct of a Harvard Kennedy School professor, Marshall Ganz, who pelted Israeli students with opprobrium and rejected their assignments when they described Israeli democracy positively. At one point, Ganz allegedly forced the Israeli students to attend “a class exercise on Palestinian solidarity” and the taking of a class photograph in which their classmates and teaching fellows “wore ‘keffiyehs’ as a symbol of Palestinian support.”

During an investigation of the incidents, which Harvard delegated to a third party firm, Ganz admitted that he believed “that the students’ description of Israel as a Jewish democracy … was similar to ‘talking about a white supremacist state.'” The firm went on to determine that Ganz “denigrated” the Israeli students and fostered “a hostile learning environment,” conclusions which Harvard accepted but never acted on.

Other egregious incidents of graduate school antisemitism occurred long before Oct. 7. In 2021, Jewish graduate students of City University of New York-Brooklyn College’s Mental Health Counseling program alleged in a civil rights complaint that they were repeatedly pressured into saying that Jews are white and should thus be excluded from discussions about social justice. The badgering of Jewish students, they said, was so severe that one student said in a WhatsApp group chat that she wanted to “strangle” a Jewish classmate.

These are kinds of experiences for which Jewish students must be prepared, JGO chief executive officer Rabbi Dave Sorani said in Wednesday’s press release.

“We recognize the unique challenges and opportunities that Jewish graduate students face,” JGO chief executive officer Rabbi Dave Sorani said in Wednesday’s press release. “Through this collaboration, we will work with the ADL to provide critical resources and programming to equip Jewish students with the tools they need to navigate and confront antisemitism effectively, stand up for themselves, and advocate for the broader Jewish community.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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