Anti-Semitic incidents increased 34% from 2020 to 2021, according to the Anti-Defamation League. This is of little surprise to those who have kept a close eye on this phenomenon, particularly at American colleges and universities.
The “Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions” (BDS) movement against Israel is a particularly dominant force on many campuses, and represents one of the many faces of anti-Semitism in the United States. A new report, published by the National Association of Scholars (NAS) details the incentives given to students and faculty activists that increase anti-Semitism on and off campus.
The Company They Keep: Organizational and Economic Dynamics of the BDS Movement notes the origins and growth of the BDS movement, its failures and successes in three case studies, and the threats it poses to Jewish Students and professors. The report also provides recommendations to disarm anti-Semitic activists on campus. These reforms and initiatives seek to counter BDS by maintaining free speech on campus, protecting academic freedom, and mandating the political neutrality of public higher education institutions.
The event features Marc Greendorfer, Founder of the Zachor Legal Institute; James Jay Carafano, Vice President of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy and the E.W. Richardson Fellow; and the report’s author, Ian Oxnevad, Senior Fellow for Foreign Affairs and Security Studies at the National Association of Scholars.
Photo by Ben Ostrower on Unsplash
