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The following analysis was authored by Derek Tassone, research analyst for the Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) by CAM:
In an August 26th letter to a group university presidents in the state of New York, Congressman Ritchie Torres (NY-15) urged them to follow the lead of New York University (NYU) and update their Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment policies to forbid discrimination against “Zionists.” The impetus for Representative Torres’ letter was NYU’s August 22nd announcement that it had updated its policy to state, “Speech and conduct that would violate the NDAH if targeting Jewish or Israeli people can also violate the NDAH if directed toward Zionists.”
Both NYU and Representative Torres have taken important steps to advance the fight against Jew-hatred. Antisemites boast a long history of invoking the word “Zionist” as a dog-whistle to target Jews, not least on college and university campuses.
Scholar Izabella Tabarovsky has written extensively about this sad history, noting that purging Jews for alleged “Zionist” crimes has its roots in Soviet antisemitism. “Anti-Zionist” cartoons from the Soviet Union employed antisemitic tropes, depicting Jews as greedy, blood-thirsty, misanthropic, and conniving, frequently with no dividing line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. For example, a 1972 Soviet portrayal of Israel as a pernicious spider, itself a callback to previous Nazi images of Jews as animals seeking global domination, found its way to the streets of Sydney, Australia in 2024 (Note how the spider is labeled: “Zionist venom”).
Yet, what was once the modus operandi of the Soviet Union has permeated parts of the American left and seeped into academia, to the detriment of Jews on campus and elsewhere.
Examples abound on college campuses, especially in the aftermath of Hamas’ October 7th massacre in Israel and the Israeli military’s subsequent operation in the Gaza Strip to destroy the terror group. Here are just a few:
- Columbia University, October 2023: The president of the LionLez club on campus shared flyers advertising an event reading “It’s FREE PALESTINE over here. Zionists aren’t invited.” Amidst criticism, the club president responded in an email that “white Jewish people are today and always have been the oppressors of all brown people,” “WHEN I SAY THE HOLOCAUST WASN’T SPECIAL, I MEAN THAT,” and “Israelites are the Nazis.”
- Stanford University, December 2023: Students at Stanford Law School complained that the Jewish Law Students Association (JLSA) was holding a Hanukkah event in public, opposing the public celebration as a celebration of “Zionism” and “disgusting.”
- UC Santa Barbara, December 2023: Anti-Israel activists on campus targeted the Jewish student body president with signs reading, “Tessa Veksler supports genocide,” “Zionists not welcome,” and “You can run but you can’t hide Tessa Veksler.”
- Cornell University, January 2024: Students at Cornell posted on Instagram that “Zionists must die.”
- Stanford University, January 2024: Outside a university-sponsored event on campus antisemitism, protesters chanted, “Go Back to Brooklyn” and “Zionists, Zionists, You Can’t Hide, We Charge You With Genocide.”
- Columbia University, April 2024: It was unveiled that a leader of the Columbia encampment leader posted in January 2024 that “Zionists don’t deserve to live.”
- UCLA, May 2024: Encampment participants established a perimeter and asked those attempting to enter, “Are you a Zionist?”
- University of Michigan, August 2024: Antisemitic stickers were placed around campus by unknown perpetrators, with one reading, “Zionism is Nazism” and another saying “A dead Zionist a day keeps the genocide away.”
- UCLA, September 2024: The UCLA Student Government passed a resolution supporting the anti-Israel encampments, and the text of the resolution included a condemnation of “Zionist and racist mobs.”
- Columbia University, September 2024: The Columbia University Apartheid Divest Organization posted on Instagram that “All Zionist entities … are legitimate targets.”
Targeting Jewish organizations or individuals under the guise of denouncing “Zionism” is a tried and true tactic to veil what would otherwise be easily identifiable antisemitism. Disguising blatant anti-Jewish bigotry with this term is an attempt to obfuscate the accusation of antisemitism, isolate and delegitimize Jews and Jewish organizations, and force Jews to repudiate an ideology that the vast majority consider an inherent part of their identity.
Many of the aforementioned incidents were highlighted in reports on antisemitism issued by Columbia University and Stanford University. Cognizant of the usage of “Zionist” as a stand-in for “Jew,” both reports recommended that their respective university administrators take action to recognize and respond to this phenomenon.
NYU, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and SUNY have already taken steps to do so, and while other campuses should do so as well, such policy updates must be implemented in tandem with adoption and enforcement of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism. Adopting the definition will enable faculty, administrators, and students to better recognize antisemitism and subsequently respond to antisemitic incidents on campuses.
Colleges and universities in the United States have a legal and moral obligation to respond decisively to protect their Jewish students. As the fall semester unfolds, and antisemitism once again proliferates on campuses across the country, university administrators and leaders must meet the moment decisively.
