JVP Academic Council Statement on Touro University’s Newly Formed So-Called “Antisemitism Institute”

April 29, 2026

The Academic Council of Jewish Voice for Peace is dismayed over Touro University’s decision to establish its so-called “Antisemitism Institute.”  Touro’s announcement of this new initiative claims that the new institute is “in response to the rising incidence of antisemitism across academia.”  Yet Touro speaks of “rising antisemitism across academia” without offering any evidence to support this claim. The claim is thus no more than an assertion. The Academic Council knows of no reliable evidence or documentation that supports the claim, nor of any evidence or documentation that would support Touro’s alarmism about “antisemitism across academia,” whether its level is rising or not.

We find it especially disturbing that–at a time when the Trump administration cynically uses concern about antisemitism (and thus Jews) as its front-line alibi for its authoritarian and anti-intellectual attacks on higher education – the only specific incident named in Touro University’s announcements are protests in favor of human rights and against genocide in Palestine. The encampments at Columbia and other campuses were protests against genocide and in support of Palestinian freedom–and are themselves no basis at all for any response to antisemitism, much less this new institute. To suggest otherwise, as Touro does in its announcement of the institute, is a disgrace, a shanda.

The Academic Council is keenly aware, of course, that Zionist actors and institutions (not only Touro) routinely and recklessly smear as “antisemitism” speech and actions, both in and beyond academia, that hold the the Israeli state accountable for its denial of Palestinian freedoms–and for the genocide. The Academic Council knows that the very purpose of these reckless charges of “antisemitism” is to undermine the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality, and life itself. 

The Academic Council is also keenly aware that academia is not, and cannot be, free of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real, present, horrible, and dangerous in both US society and the world-at-large.  It is a material and significant facet of the ascendant, anti-democratic Christian right of our time, both in and beyond the United States. And it is neither separable from nor worse than anti-Black and anti-Brown hate, transphobia, homophobia, misogyny, and anti-immigrant hate. Solidarity with all who are targets of oppression is the only just and the only sound means of opposing actual antisemitism, both in and beyond academia. Together with others, we must pursue collective liberation–a pursuit that at once includes Jews and repudiates Jewish privilege. 

The establishment of Touro’s Institute of Antisemitism is a move in the exact opposite direction. It undermines the struggle against actual antisemitism by embracing the notion that the struggle against antisemitism is apart from, and more urgent than, the struggle against other oppressions and hatreds. 

The Academic Council believes that we can most effectively overcome antisemitism and other forms of racism and bigotry by understanding how they interrelate, e.g., Hitler’s use of U.S. eugenics laws written to create a White nation. In contrast, Touro’s program partners with the National Jewish Advocacy Center, led by CEO Mark Goldfeder, who endorsed White and Christian supremacist Charlie Kirk as “everything you could want in a leader.” This program will likely continue the targeting as antisemitic those who critique racist violence and bigotry in all their forms, including and especially Palestinians, Jews who support Palestinian human and civil rights, immigrants, and LGBTQIA+ individuals.

The new institute travesties the Jewish ethical imperatives to repair the world (tikkun olam) and to value all human lives (the principle behind pikuach nefesh). In addition, given the institute’s foundation in unsupported factual claims about rising antisemitism in academia, it cannot be a legitimate academic or scholarly institute.

The Academic Council of Jewish Voice Peace repudiates this new institute for, at once, embracing a fallacious understanding of antisemitism and suppressing efficacious methods for combating actual antisemitism.

The Jewish Voice for Peace Academic Council is a network of scholars dedicated to furthering JVP’s vision and values. Drawing upon our shared commitment to both progressive Jewish values and Palestinian liberation, we organize in solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle in educational and academic settings. We draw upon our skills as scholars, educators, and writers to develop critical analysis of contemporary censorship on Palestine. We oppose the deployment of the charge of antisemitism to censor or criminalize speech critical of the State of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.  We defend employment rights, academic freedom, and rights of association within higher education and confirm the core values of Jewish Voice for Peace.