A new study claims anti-Israel sentiment is prevalent not only across U.S. universities but within some Jewish and Israel studies programs.

The Olam, a publication headed by Ronn Torossian, an American public relations executive and longtime pro-Israel activist with ties to Israel’s political right, published a study this month that claims data collected over the last five years show that among 1,014 faculty in Jewish studies, Israel studies, Hebrew or Holocaust studies, 39.5% have “documented anti-Israel public signals.”

The study also analyzed 2,499 faculty and institutional records from Judaic and Israel studies programs in American universities, of which 51.9% “carry documented anti-Israel public signals.”

The study defines anti-Israel public signals as actions like describing Israel as an apartheid state or one rooted in settler colonialism, describing Israeli operations in Gaza as a genocide, calling for the end of U.S. aid to Israel, signing certain public statements or letters and supporting certain organizations, among other things.

It distinguishes supporting Palestinian human rights within the framework of Israel’s continued existence, supporting a two-state solution, criticizing specific Israeli policies or specific IDF operations, criticizing Prime Minister Netanyahu and calling for accountability in regard to Palestinian civilian casualties as not being explicitly anti-Israel.

Professor Michael Brenner, professor of history and Abensohn Chair in Israel Studies at American University, said he has seen the full spectrum of responses from colleagues across the university’s disciplines, but that he hasn’t seen anti-Israel sentiment within his own.

“At American University, we do not have any negative experience within Jewish and Israel Studies. As director of America’s oldest center for Israel studies, I have encountered the whole range of behavior after Oct. 7 among colleagues in other fields, including expressions of solidarity by non-Jewish colleagues who I hardly knew before all the way to behavior of boycott and hostility by others,” Brenner said.

Robert Eisen, George Washington University’s director of Judaic studies, said that reactions to Israel in the school among faculty and students were inflamed after Oct. 7, and that much of what he hears from students regarding classes focused on the Middle East.

“It was always somewhat of a problem. Students would complain to me about the content of courses being tilted against Israel. But usually, the complaints, which is interesting as I think about it, were about courses that were on the Middle East that seemed biased against Israel,” Eisen said.

The Olam study found 14 endowed chairs who hold “positions funded by donors who [intend] to strengthen Jewish scholarship” are signatories of things like the 2023 Jewish Studies Ceasefire Letter and the 2025 “Not in Our Name” letter, which Olam labels as anti-Israel.

Rabbi Bruce Aft, adjunct professor in Judaism and Holocaust studies at George Mason University, said what he has seen at his university is reassuring for the future of Israel supporters and Jews at American universities.

“What’s happened is that the president of the university, like so many presidents, was under the gun, and the Jewish community significantly supported him,” Aft said. “Under his leadership, there’s now a Jewish studies minor, and we’re working toward trying to develop a Jewish studies major at some point. There is an initiative that is being launched to try to raise money for another Jewish studies chair or another professorship … it’s just been amazing the change that’s occurred in my view.”

The Olam study raises questions about what constitutes support for Israel and what doesn’t, something Eisen touched on as he considered what level of support, if any, is necessary for a Jewish studies or Israel studies professor.

“On some level, I feel like I would want the professors to support Israel because I believe that Israel has a right to exist. But would I want my faculty to support Israel in the Gaza war? Would I want my faculty to support the Netanyahu government? That I don’t think I can demand from them. I think the right of Israel to exist, for there to be a sovereign Jewish state in the location of the ancient Jewish homeland, is something I would want to see all Jewish studies faculty support, but what form that takes is really up to the individual, because there is such a wide range of views of what a Jewish state should be,” he said.

Brenner also said there are levels to anti-Israel and pro-Israel activism, and that strong Jewish and Israel studies departments are necessary to combat stringent anti-Israel work.

“In a campus climate in which activism and misinformation are growing, Israel and Jewish Studies can serve as an important source of information, as crucial support for students, and as bridge builders in a divided world,” he said. “Thus readers need to understand that weakening Israel and Jewish Studies on campus would be handing a victory to the real anti-Israel activists, which to the most part are not the people depicted in this study.”

aguckes@midatlanticmedia.com