New Barometer Ranks School-By-School Anti-Zionist Faculty

As part of its recently launched national campaign to combat faculty antisemitism, AMCHA Initiative on Wednesday unveiled its Anti-Zionist Faculty (AZF) Barometer, a comprehensive, first-of-its-kind tool designed to help university stakeholders evaluate the pervasiveness of anti-Zionist faculty at hundreds of US colleges and universities.

AMCHA’s research indicates that anti-Zionist faculty played an astonishing role this past year in escalating antisemitic incidents, fomenting chaos, spreading anti-Israel propaganda, and pushing anti-Israel activities, including the academic boycott of Israel.

The AZF Barometer ranks over 700 colleges and universities on a scale from 0 to 5 based on four measures of anti-Zionist faculty presence and activity: faculty members’ public endorsements of academic boycotts of Israel, anti-Zionist departmental statements, the presence of Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) groups, and FJP-sponsored events and statements. These rankings provide a clear lens into the influence of anti-Zionist faculty on campus, indicating their potential contribution to campus antisemitism and enabling prospective students and their families to evaluate how welcoming or hostile a campus may be for Jewish or pro-Israel students.

Schools comprising the top ten worst according to AMCHA’s new AZF Barometer are NYU, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Columbia, UC Santa Cruz, University of Washington, Georgetown, UCLA, CUNY’s Graduate Center, UC Irvine, and the University of Hawaii Manoa.

“While much attention has been paid to the antisemitic behavior of anti-Zionist students and student groups and the inability or unwillingness of school leaders to address it, the enormous influence of anti-Zionist faculty on campus climate is often overlooked because much of it happens away from public view, in classrooms and conference halls, at faculty and academic senate meetings, and via internal communications. However, our research indicates faculty might be the most determinative variable when it comes to attacks on Jewish students,” stated AMCHA’s director, Tammi Rossman-Benjamin.

? Happening now: UCLA Faculty for Justice in Palestine stage a mass walk out in solidarity with student protesters. Faculty are supporting the students’ demands for the university to divest from companies that do business with Israel ? pic.twitter.com/6rVRxmRpkD

— Clara Harter (@_ClaraHarter) April 29, 2024

FJP BOOSTS ANTISEMITISM

A recent AMCHA study found that the presence of FJP chapters on college campuses:

• Increased by more than seven times the likelihood of physical assaults on Jewish students
• Increased by over three times the chance that a Jewish student would be subject to threats of violence and death
• Prolonged the duration of encampment protests, which were likely to last over four and half times longer on campuses where FJP faculty were free to influence and provide logistic and material support to students.

In addition, according to the research, professors at FJP schools spent 9.5 more days involved in protests than those at non-FJP schools, and academic boycott calls were nearly 11 times more likely in student demands at schools with FJPs.

FJP chapters were established after October 7, 2023, in response to a directive from the U.S. arm of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a self-described founding member of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) which was co-founded by an umbrella group of organizations that reportedly includes Iran-supported Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, both designated by the U.S. State Department as terrorist groups and committed to the destruction of Israel.

In the accompanying Guide that thoroughly explains AMCHA’s new evidence-based ranking system, Rossman-Benjamin also unpacks how and why faculty have this outstretched influence.  She explains that “Unlike students whose more public-facing behavior is limited to the few years they are enrolled at the school, or university presidents who are easily fired or forced to resign if their performance is deemed unacceptable by school trustees or faculty, most anti-Zionist faculty members are tenured or tenure-track, which means they can, with impunity, incorporate anti-Zionist advocacy and activism into their professional activities for decades. Many anti-Zionist faculty also serve in administrative roles such as department chairs and deans, wielding still more influence over campus life.”

Chris Case, University of Oregon Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine member and SEIU 503 Steward, addresses the UO Board of Trustees on 06/04/2024 to support the demands of the UO Palestine Coalition. #ducksfordivestment #freepalestine #DivestFromGenocide pic.twitter.com/Xuy1wv4YTD

— UO Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (@uoregonfsjp) June 6, 2024

The AZF Barometer and Guide can help a wide range of stakeholders address the challenges posed by anti-Zionist faculty. Students and families can use the AZF Barometer in conjunction with AMCHA’s other tools and resources, including its antisemitic incident tracker and databases on anti-Zionist student groups, to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the antisemitic elements of a particular university. Students and families are encouraged to supplement this information with resources from Jewish organizations like Hillel International and Chabad on Campus to explore positive aspects of Jewish life on campus.

The AZF Barometer can also be used by university leaders, government officials, Jewish communal organizations, and members of the concerned public to better educate themselves about the significant role that anti-Zionist faculty play in the creation of a hostile environment for Jewish members of the campus community, and then use this understanding to help craft policy, legislation, and advocacy campaigns to address campus antisemitism.

The AZF Barometer Guide urges university administrators to establish robust safeguards to prevent faculty from using their academic positions and departmental affiliations to promote politically motivated antisemitic advocacy and activism that targets their students and colleagues for harm. State and federal legislators are also urged to ensure that government monies given to institutions of higher education are used for educational purposes rather than political ones – especially the implementation of academic BDS, which intentionally subverts the educational process and harms students – and encouraged to consider establishing legislation that would withhold government funding of schools that permit faculty to engage in such behavior.

The AZF Barometer is the culmination of AMCHA Initiative’s extensive research, spanning more than a decade, into the role of anti-Zionist faculty in shaping campus climates.

“By shining a spotlight on the role of anti-Zionist faculty, the AZF Barometer equips students, families, and stakeholders with the tools to advocate for safer, more inclusive campuses,” Rossman-Benjamin said. “We urge university leaders and policymakers to use this data to foster environments that protect the rights and identities of all students.”