Fifteen professors repeatedly signed anti-Israel petitions across multiple campaigns. Eight of them hold endowed chairs.
OLAM RESEARCH · THE FACULTY AUDIT
Most faculty on the record signed one petition. These fifteen signed two, three, or four, across years and escalating campaigns. The repeat signers are the spine of the petition machine.
The Olam faculty audit documents nine petition campaigns spanning May 2021 through Spring 2026. Most of the 1,298 faculty on the record signed a single letter. But a subset, documented below, signed multiple campaigns: separate petitions, organized by different groups, circulated months or years apart. These are not one-time expressions. They are sustained, repeated, documented public commitments against Israel from some of the most senior scholars in the field.
Signing once could be a moment. Signing repeatedly is a position.
Yinon Cohen Signed 4 Campaigns: More Than Any Other Faculty Member in the Audit
Yerushalmi Professor of Israel & Jewish Studies, Columbia University
Cohen signed the May 2021 declaration, an AcademicsForPeace petition, a BDS letter calling on Germany to reject a resolution equating BDS with antisemitism, and the March 2025 "Not in Our Name" letter. Four separate campaigns across four years. He holds the Yerushalmi Chair, the most prestigious Israel Studies position at Columbia. The search committee that appointed him included Palestinian activist professors Rashid Khalidi and Lila Abu-Lughod. His research field is sociology and labor markets, not Jewish history or Israel Studies.
Lior Sternfeld Authored All 4 AcademicsForPeace Petitions: 4,000+ Combined Signatures
Associate Professor of History & Jewish Studies, Penn State University
Sternfeld is the national spokesperson for AcademicsForPeace and the author of all four petitions: August 2023, October 2023, December 2023, and March 2024. The March 2024 petition was titled "Genocide Is Plausible; Stop Arms to Israel." Combined, the four petitions gathered 4,000+ signatures. He also signed the Jewish Studies Ceasefire Letter. He is not an endowed chair holder; he is an associate professor at a taxpayer-funded land-grant university. But he is arguably the single most consequential individual in the dataset, the person who built the petition infrastructure the rest of the field signed.
Omer Bartov Signed Every Round of AcademicsForPeace at Brown
Professor of Holocaust & Genocide Studies, Brown University
Bartov signed all three rounds of AcademicsForPeace (October 2023, December 2023, March 2024). National Jewish Book Award winner. Brown has 27 faculty on the record and hosts the first endowed Palestinian Studies chair at any American university.
Barry Trachtenberg Signed 3 Campaigns From Wake Forest's Rubin Chair
Rubin Presidential Chair of Jewish History, Wake Forest University
Trachtenberg signed the Ceasefire Letter (October 2023), AcademicsForPeace (March 2024), and "Not in Our Name" (March 2025). Three campaigns, three organizing groups, 18 months. Rubin Presidential Chair.
Nitzan Lebovic Signed 3 Campaigns From Lehigh's Apter Holocaust Chair
Apter Chair of Holocaust Studies & Ethical Values, Lehigh University
Lebovic signed the May 2021 declaration, AcademicsForPeace, and "Not in Our Name." Three campaigns across four years, beginning before October 7. Apter Chair of Holocaust Studies.
Frances Tanzer Signed 3 Campaigns From Clark's Rose Holocaust Chair
Rose Professor of Holocaust History, Clark University
Tanzer signed the May 2021 declaration, AcademicsForPeace, and "Not in Our Name." Same pattern as Lebovic. Three campaigns, beginning before October 7. Rose Chair at one of the oldest Holocaust history programs in the country.
Katharina Galor Signed 3 Anti-Israel Letters at Brown
Hirschfeld Senior Lecturer, Judaic Studies, Brown University
Galor signed AcademicsForPeace (October 2023), the 240 Jewish and Israeli Scholars BDS letter, and a separate letter on "systematic oppression." Archaeologist specializing in the Levant. One of the most active scholars in Brown's Judaic Studies program.
Shira Klein Signed All 3 AcademicsForPeace Petitions at Chapman
Associate Professor of History, Chapman University
Klein signed all three rounds of AcademicsForPeace. National Jewish Book Award finalist and a statement author, not just a signatory. Alongside Sternfeld and Bartov, she is an architect of the campaign, not merely a participant.
Tamir Sorek Signed the BDS Letter and AcademicsForPeace, and Authored a Statement
Professor of History, University of Florida
Sorek signed the 240 Scholars BDS letter and AcademicsForPeace, where he was a statement author. Dual role as BDS endorser and petition architect. Previously held a joint appointment in Sociology and Jewish Studies.
Mark LeVine Signed the Ceasefire Letter and AcademicsForPeace at UC Irvine
Professor of History, UC Irvine
LeVine signed the Ceasefire Letter (October 2023) and AcademicsForPeace (March 2024). Two campaigns, two organizing groups. Middle East history specialist.
Atalia Omer Signed the Ceasefire Letter and AcademicsForPeace: Carnegie Fellow
Professor of Religion, Conflict & Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame
Omer signed the Ceasefire Letter (October 2023) and AcademicsForPeace (March 2024). Carnegie Fellow. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
David N. Myers Signed AcademicsForPeace and the UCLA Faculty Letter
Sady & Ludwig Kahn Professor; Director, Leve Center for Jewish Studies, UCLA
Myers signed AcademicsForPeace in August 2023, the earliest round, and a UCLA Jewish faculty/staff letter. He holds the Kahn Chair and directs the Leve Center for Jewish Studies. At UCLA, Myers runs Jewish Studies while Dov Waxman (until December 2024) ran Israel Studies. Both directors are on the record. Myers was also among the scholars quoted defending academic freedom when a separate University of Washington donor dispute broke out; see below.
Benjamin Schreier Signed the May 2021 Declaration and "Not in Our Name" at Penn State
Mitrani Family Professor of English & Jewish Studies, Penn State University
Schreier signed the May 2021 declaration and "Not in Our Name" in March 2025, four years apart. He holds the Mitrani Family Chair and shares a department with Lior Sternfeld, the AcademicsForPeace spokesperson.
Arie Dubnov Signed the May 2021 Declaration and AcademicsForPeace From GW's Israel Studies Chair
Max Ticktin Professor of Israel Studies, George Washington University
Dubnov signed the May 2021 declaration and AcademicsForPeace. Max Ticktin Chair, a position funded to promote scholarship on the modern State of Israel.
Liora Halperin Signed Twice, and Lost a $5M Endowment After the First Signature
Associate Professor, University of Washington
Halperin signed the May 2021 declaration, the signature that cost her university $5 million when donor Becky Benaroya pulled the entire endowment, and "Not in Our Name" in March 2025, the letter that drew more than 2,400 Jewish scholars nationally in response to the arrest of Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil. The first signature triggered the only documented case of donor action in the audit. The second came three years later, after Halperin had been stripped of the Benaroya Chair, promoted to full professor, and given a new unnamed chair. Two campaigns. One endowment lost. Zero deterrent effect.
Fifteen Repeat Signers, Eight Endowed Chairs, One Direction: Escalation
Fifteen faculty signed two or more petition campaigns. Eight of the fifteen hold endowed chairs funded by Jewish philanthropists. The pattern runs in one direction: no repeat signer is documented reversing course. The positions harden, the campaigns get larger, and the language escalates from "settler colonialism" (2021) to "genocide is plausible" (2024) to a $250,000 settlement (2026).
The repeat signers are disproportionately concentrated at the top-12 campuses that produce the next generation of Jewish Studies scholars. They are not outliers. They are the core.
The full dataset is in The Olam's faculty database. The complete audit documents the methodology and lists every individually named professor.
A study by olam.business and the Ronn Torossian Foundation. The methodology is public. The data is sourced.
