President Donald Trump insists that top universities must pay dearly for not protecting Jewish students. This includes cutting $790 million in medical and scientific research previously led by Northwestern University scholars.
Michael Schill, then president of Northwestern, was berated by congressional Republicans for brokering a compromise with pro-Palestinian protesters last year, disbanding their tent cities while preserving free speech. He was too timid in stamping out campus antisemitism, Trump disciples argued. Shill stepped down last month.
The Israel-Hamas war rattled campuses and spurred disrespect and intolerant behavior on all sides. But through the eyes of Jewish Americans, does Trump’s play of the antisemitism card feel authentic?
Most Jews nationwide think not. A wide majority say Trump is exploiting antisemitism in disingenuous fashion, that it’s a thinly veiled disguise to justify his assault on higher education, as revealed by a national survey we completed last month. The very group that Trump claims to represent isn’t buying it.
Trump’s sudden embrace of Jewish students, pitting them against purportedly reckless university leaders, remains bewildering. He has long praised unabashedly antisemitic warriors. His secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, advocates for a new Christian crusade, literally.
The president embraces white nationalists, such as “the very fine people” in Charlottesville, Virginia, who chanted “Jews will not replace us,,” at the deadly Unite the Right rally in 2017. Trump has eviscerated the Office for Civil Rights, the avenue through which Jewish student once pursued legal protection.
Thankfully, federal courts are poking through Trump’s paper-thin rationale for cutting billions of dollars in medical and other research.
In rejecting the administration’s half-billion-dollar penalty slapped on Harvard University, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs found it “difficult to conclude anything other than that (government) used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.”
Yet, the nation’s Jewish community is rarely asked about its views on these pivotal issues of tolerance, belonging and pluralism. We lent voice to the community by surveying nearly 1,200 Jewish citizens, working with Ipsos, the independent polling firm, yielding a representative national portrait. Fully 85% of those contacted responded, eager to express their views.
Jewish Americans told us — by a margin of nearly 3 to 1 — that Trump manipulates antisemitism dishonestly, using it as an excuse to pause or cut university funding. Only about one-fourth of all Jews nationwide believe the president “truly cares about protecting Jewish students on college campuses.”
When asked whether Trump’s claims of antisemitism justify delaying or slashing research support at top colleges, two-thirds said “no.” Moreover, opposition to Trump’s actions against universities has grown since the spring, when we posed similar questions for American Jews.
We also found that 89% of Jewish Americans trust medical researchers and scientists “to do the right thing,” compared with 24% reporting this level of trust for “senior officials in the Trump Administration.”
The nation’s Jews do worry deeply about antisemitism. Almost 3 in 4 are somewhat or very concerned over anti-Jewish sentiment on campuses. Two in five have experienced an antisemitic episode in their daily lives since the Hamas attacks on innocent Israeli citizens two years ago. Still, younger Jews — more likely attending college or engaged with students — worry less about antisemitism than do older members of the community.
We also discovered that less than one-third of Jews still supported Israel’s conquest of Gaza and starvation among the Palestinians.
Meanwhile, ugly incidents of antisemitism continue to surface locally. The sadly familiar graffiti of “hate Jews” was painted in late August on a synagogue in Vernon Hills just before the Jewish new year.
Now as Jewish Americans struggle with hatred, even alienation from the Israeli state, they discover a slippery president who exploits a true danger. Rather than fostering respect and learning from one another, Republican leaders selfishly inflame age-old divisions, then bend a real problem to hammer universities.
Trump erodes the very institutions that have long provided safety, learning and upward mobility for Jewish families — all the while claiming that he’s protecting Jews.
If the president’s true aim is to silence professors, medical researchers or computer scientists, he should say so. Then, civic leaders and voters can openly debate the wisdom of squelching free speech and unfettered human inquiry.
Maybe federal pressure will result in surer protection for Jewish students. But initial reforms may trouble most Americans. Columbia University agreed to muzzle professors, allowing students to tattle on lectures that criticize the Israeli state or suggest that Palestinian people might be suffering. Even lawyers at the University of California Berkeley shared with the Trump administration the names of students and professors incidentally noted in unproven antisemitism claims.
Civic tension and strident voices will persist on college campuses, in part given Trump’s penchant for stoking mistrust and suspicion of others. Three hundred Northwestern students recently refused to attend a newly mandated class on antisemitism, claiming it’s well intentioned yet one-sided.
Local leaders, civic groups and universities must carve out space for tempered and engaging conversations. We can no longer count on the government to craft a public commons.
American Jews yearn for political leaders who advance genuine compassion and honest remedies. They don’t want to be exploited in nefarious ways.
James Druckman, a former political science professor at Northwestern University, teaches at the University of Rochester. Bruce Fuller, a sociologist, is emeritus professor of education and public policy at the University of California Berkeley.
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