(The Center Square) – Nearly all the Ivy League universities have received low marks on the Anti-Defamation League’s Campus Antisemitism Report Card.
Harvard received the lowest grade with an “F” while Dartmouth received the highest with a “C”. The remaining schools: the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia and Brown received D’s.
Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians in Gaza, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights has opened Title VI investigations related to anti-Semitism incidents on the campuses of every Ivy League school, excluding Dartmouth.
The ADL report noted several examples of anti-Semitic sentiment stemming from faculty and staff.
Late last year Ivy League presidents from Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania were forced to step down after fallout stemming from congressional testimony in which they failed to say calls for a Jewish genocide violated school conduct policies.
In March, Penn Faculty for Justice in Palestine sued the school to halt the university from “sending internal documents to a Congressional committee investigating antisemitism on the campus.”
At Brown, nearly 200 faculty members signed a letter sent to the university’s President Christina Paxon asking her to “re-open discussions on divestment and to drop all charges against students who were arrested after a sit-in at University Hall in November,” according to the report.
Of the schools, Columbia has garnered the most attention, following violent uprising leading to arrests after agitators stormed and occupied a campus building. Since the crackdown from law enforcement and the university, the New York Police Department reported finding pro-Jihadi materials within the encampment.
Leading up to the massive protest and encampment, over 100 Columbia faculty members signed a letter in support of groups, such as Students for Justice in Palestine “and defending Hamas’ attack as ‘just one salvo in an ongoing war between an occupying state and the people it occupies, or as an occupied people exercising a right to resist,’” according to the report.
At Cornell, the report alleges a professor told a “campus rally that he was ‘exhilarated’ by the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel,” according to the ADL. The report noted that the professor has since taken a leave of absence.
In January, following the fallout from former Harvard President Claudine Gay’s controversial testimony, six students sued the school “alleging that Harvard had become a ‘bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment,’” according to the ADL report.
In February, two student groups shared “an antisemitic cartoon from … 1960” online that the ADL claims was “re-published by Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine.” The report noted the offensive cartoon was removed and the group apologized.
Incidents of perceived antisemitism from faculty at some of the schools have been eclipsed by a multitude of threats, harassment and violence directed at Jewish students and groups, including death threats.
Late last year at Brown, an individual allegedly broke into two Jewish students’ residence, leaving a note “under their door that read: ‘Those that live for death will die by their own hand,’” according to the report.
Last fall, at Cornell a student allegedly “threatened to shoot and stab Jewish students and stab Jewish students and attack the campus’ kosher dining hall.”
Last fall, at Columbia there were incidents of vandalism and physical attacks, including Jewish students allegedly being “spat on.” In addition, “an Israeli student was allegedly beaten on his hand with a stick outside of the University library after confronting a perpetrator for ripping down flyers of Israeli hostages held by Hamas,” according to the report.
In December, Penn received a message threatening a mass shooting, “’you are going to be mass shoot [sic] in the Pennsylvania jew [expletive] university. We will mass shoot you very soon,’” according to the report.
Despite the negative reports, the ADL reported various ways each school is attempting to combat anti-Semitism on their campuses. Columbia has suspended groups like the SJP for violating university policies and has created a Task Force on Anti-Semitism, as well as updated their “bias incident report and response” efforts to handle the increase of anti-Semitism.
At Brown, the school several arrests have been made for trespassing related to pro-Palestinian protests.
At Cornell, the university “has undertaken a review of public safety operations, launched a new lecture series exploring critical issues around antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate, created two advisory groups, and is organizing trainings,” according to the report. In addition, the school has created a task force combating antisemitism.
At Penn, the school created an anti-Semitism task force and action plan, and “made efforts to encourage more students to report bias or harassment and has increased its security services on campus.”
The ADL noted that last month Princeton was upgraded from an “F” to a “D” due to “new information or events.” The report said the university “has been in regular contact with Hillel, supporting Hillel’s ongoing workshops for students on understanding and responding to antisemitism.”
The report notes that Yale is “building on work completed by the Yale Antisemitism Campus Climate Group” and created a standing committee to “identify and address issues related to campus climate” for the Jewish community at the school. Yale is also pledging to “incorporate new educational programming on antisemitism into its training curriculum.” In addition, the school announced that it would foot the bill to fund security measures for the Slifka Center.
