Higher education unions failing Jewish faculty, graduate students, new report claims

Higher education unions across the United States are increasingly marginalizing Jewish faculty and graduate students, leaving them unsupported and silenced, according to a new report by the Academic Engagement Network (AEN) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The report, titled “A Crisis of Representation: Antisemitism and Inclusion in Higher Education Unions,” details how antisemitism, extreme anti-Zionist activism, and institutional governance failures have created a hostile environment.

The research, which draws on incident reports, member accounts, and union materials, reveals a pattern where activist factions leverage low-turnout union elections and general meetings to push through measures. This has allowed anti-Israel positions to be adopted without broad member consensus. The American Association of University Professors, for example, reversed its stance against academic boycotts in 2024 and later hosted programming on “scholasticide in Palestine” while reportedly ignoring requests from Jewish organizations for alternative perspectives.

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the term ‘Zionist’ is applied as a slur if you express an opinion other than full condemnation of Israel.

The report further details how the California Faculty Association urged the California State University system to sever academic ties with Israeli universities in 2025, using terms like “scholasticide,” “apartheid,” and “genocide.” Similarly, the Santa Cruz Faculty Association co-authored resolutions alleging “scholasticide” and supporting anti-Zionist departmental statements under the guise of academic freedom.

Complex procedural rules, low participation rates, and strong pressure to conform make academic union spaces particularly vulnerable to these dynamics. One faculty member noted in the report that the term “Zionist” is often used as a slur against those who do not fully condemn Israel. Instances of targeting include a union leader at the City College of San Francisco reportedly calling a Jewish instructor a “colonizer” and making derogatory remarks about her name. At Cornell, graduate students adopted a statement endorsing an academic and cultural boycott of Israel while affirming Palestinians’ “unequivocal human right to resist oppression by any means necessary.” The report argues these ideological shifts distract unions from their core responsibilities of negotiating fair wages, protecting academic freedom, and ensuring job security.

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Palestinians’ ‘unequivocal human right to resist oppression by any means necessary.’