The Profs Aren’t Alright: How Radical Faculty Fuel The Rise Of Campus Antisemitism

Last week, my home state of Michigan witnessed something truly terrifying: a terrorist attack at a house of worship. The attacker drove a vehicle filled with explosives into a synagogue in West Bloomfield, a suburb of Detroit, just a few hours outside of my district.

Thankfully, on-site security personnel quickly intervened — stopping the terrorist and preventing any injury to the innocent children or staff inside. I am grateful to these guardians for responding quickly to safeguard those innocent lives, and I pray for the recovery of those injured in stopping this despicable attack.

This attack, however, isn’t an isolated incident. It is part of a broader and deeply troubling rise in antisemitism that has spread across our country since the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel.

Nowhere is that rise more evident than on our college campuses.

Students have been whipped into an activist frenzy targeting Israel and the Jewish people.

Rather than stamping out the antisemitic fervor, faculty are fanning the flames. Many campus leaders seem completely unwilling to do anything about it.

JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images

On campuses across the nation — regardless of size or location — student groups are organizing to harass and intimidate Jewish students. Groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) are the ringleaders, often with the backing of similar faculty organizations.

At Columbia University, antisemitic demonstrators stormed a library, disrupted students, and chanted slogans like “from the river to the sea.” Eden Yadegar, my guest to President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress last year, described it as “disrupting one of the most basic functions of the university.”

All too often, this chaos leads to violence. The House Committee on Education and Workforce — of which I am the chairman — heard from Michael Kaminsky, a student at DePaul University and a first-generation American who was assaulted by masked attackers for his efforts to promote dialogue about Israel and the Jewish faith. He was left with a fractured wrist, and his friend was knocked unconscious.

This is not what college should be. Students should be focused on learning and growing — not fearing harassment or assault because of their identities.

These actions are not happening in a vacuum. They are being encouraged — sometimes openly — by faculty.

At Haverford College, Tarik Aougab — a member of Haverford Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) — labeled pro-Israel students as “racist genocidaires” while praising the October 7 attacks as “a historic moment.”

At the University of California, Berkeley, a professor posted that he “could have been one of those who broke the siege.”

At MIT, former linguistics professor Michel DeGraff accused a student of having a Zionist “mind infection.”

JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images

This kind of rhetoric has consequences.

Let’s be clear: for many Jewish Americans, Israel is central to their identity. When students are targeted under the guise of “anti-Zionism,” the line between activism and antisemitism is not just crossed — it’s erased.

And yet, too many university leaders have failed to meet this moment.

Time and again, university presidents have come before this Committee and refused to take responsibility. They hedge, they equivocate, and they fail to enforce even their own rules.

The result is what we see today: antisemitism that is spreading, intensifying, and, in some cases, turning violent.

My Committee has released a report documenting just how serious this problem has become.

The findings are clear: weak leadership, radical faculty, and emboldened student groups have created an environment where antisemitism festers — and Jewish students are paying the price.

This cannot continue.

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Tim Walberg represents Michigan’s 5th Congressional District and is serving his ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He currently chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.