Who Teaches Judaism in America? Half Are Anti-Israel
The widest audit of its kind ever conducted: 2,499 faculty at 313 universities, nine petition campaigns, full methodology, and the trend by institution — 51.9% on the record against Israel, 72.3% at the Ivy League. Reported in aggregate, no names.
OLAM RESEARCH · THE FULL STUDY
The widest audit of its kind ever conducted: more than half the faculty teaching Judaism, Israel, Hebrew, and the Holocaust in America are publicly on the record against Israel — 51.9% have backed boycotts, BDS, or petitions branding Israel apartheid or genocidal. At the Ivy League: 72.3%.
The Bottom Line
51.9% flagged. 72.3% at the Ivy League. The whole audit, up top.
This is the broadest publicly documented audit of Jewish Studies and Israel Studies faculty ever conducted in the United States. It examined 2,499 faculty and institutional records across Jewish Studies, Israel Studies, Hebrew language, and Holocaust and Genocide Studies programs at American universities, cross-referencing each record against nine publicly documented petition campaigns, organizational membership records, and public statements spanning May 2021 through Spring 2026. It reports the trend in aggregate — by institution, field, rank, and petition — and names no individuals.
The study found:
1. 1,298 records — 51.9 percent of the total audited — belong to faculty publicly on the record against Israel: backing boycotts, BDS, or petitions that brand Israel an apartheid or genocidal state, as defined in the methodology.
2. Among 1,014 faculty specifically identified as teaching in Jewish Studies, Israel Studies, Hebrew, or Holocaust Studies, 401 — or 39.5 percent — are on that record.
3. At Ivy League universities, 240 of 332 records — 72.3 percent — are on the record against Israel.
4. Every Ivy League university has multiple faculty members meeting the study criteria. Columbia leads with 41 faculty on the record, followed by Princeton (35), Yale (30), Brown (27), Penn (19), Harvard (18), Cornell (13), and Dartmouth (multiple).
5. Fourteen holders of endowed chairs — positions funded by Jewish philanthropists to strengthen Jewish scholarship — are among the signatories.
6. The trend is accelerating. The March 2025 "Not in Our Name" letter has gathered 3,400+ signatures, the largest single petition in the documented record — and each successive campaign has been larger than the last.
Why It Matters
The professors audited in this study are the people hired to teach the next generation about Judaism, the Hebrew language, the State of Israel, and the history of the Holocaust. Their public positions on Israel shape the scholarly environment in which Jewish students study their own civilization.
On the core questions at issue — the legitimacy of Zionism, the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state, the use of economic boycotts against Israeli academic institutions — the positions documented in this study are not held by any mainstream political party in Israel. Those who call Zionism "settler colonialism," endorse academic boycotts of Israeli universities, or use the phrase "Jewish supremacy" to describe the Jewish state are well outside the consensus of mainstream Zionism.
Inside the Ivory Tower
What Jewish, Israel, Hebrew and Holocaust studies actually look like.
Jewish Studies, Israel Studies, Hebrew language instruction, and Holocaust and Genocide Studies are taught across hundreds of American universities. The field is anchored by professional associations, endowed chairs, and dedicated centers at the country's most prestigious research universities.
The 2,499 records audited in this study exceed the estimated faculty universe because the database includes multiple categories: named faculty in dedicated Jewish Studies programs, faculty in adjacent departments who signed the petitions documented in this study, institutional-level entries representing programs where individual names could not be confirmed, FSJP chapter-level entries, and petition-level aggregate records. These broader entries are included as scope indicators and are identified as such in the database. Counts are based on individually identified faculty only.
How We Counted
The method, start to finish — rosters, sources, every match confirmed.
2.1 How the Faculty Were Identified
Faculty rosters were compiled from publicly available university websites during July and August 2026. Sources included every institutional member program of the Association for Jewish Studies (70+), every US center and chair listed by the Association for Israel Studies (~30), and additional degree-granting programs identified through College Factual, IPEDS, and university academic catalogs.
Individual faculty names, academic titles, departmental affiliations, and institutional roles were recorded. The study includes tenured and tenure-track faculty, clinical and visiting professors, professors emeriti, senior lecturers, and postdoctoral fellows. Graduate students are excluded unless they hold a formal teaching appointment. Joint appointments are counted once at their primary institution. Faculty who have moved between institutions are listed at their most recent confirmed institution.
2.2 What Counts as Being On the Record Against Israel — and What Doesn’t
A faculty member is counted as publicly on the record against Israel if they have performed one or more of the actions listed below. Every entry is publicly verifiable, based on open-source records, and documented with the specific petition, letter, or statement signed.
Included in the classification:
Endorsing the academic boycott of Israeli institutions. Describing Israel as an apartheid state in a signed petition or public statement. Describing Zionism as settler colonialism in a signed petition or public statement. Signing petitions that characterize Israel's military conduct as genocide. Calling for the end of all US military aid to Israel. Leadership or membership in FSJP. Leadership or membership in JVP. Signing the May 2021 "Statement on Israel/Palestine by Scholars of Jewish Studies and Israel Studies." Signing any AcademicsForPeace petition (August 2023 through March 2024). Signing the Jewish Studies Ceasefire Letter (October 2023). Signing the "Not in Our Name" letter (March 2025). Other publicly documented statements meeting the above criteria.
Not included in the classification:
Supporting Palestinian human rights within the framework of Israel's continued existence. Supporting a two-state solution. Criticizing specific Israeli government policies. Criticizing the current Israeli prime minister. Opposing settlement expansion. Criticizing IDF conduct in specific operations. Calling for accountability regarding civilian casualties. These positions have robust representation in Israeli politics and civil society and are not classified as anti-Israel in this study.
2.3 How Each Signature Was Confirmed
Each faculty member was matched to petition signatories using university affiliation, department, academic title, and full name as listed on the petition. Where multiple individuals shared a name, institutional affiliation was used to confirm identity. Signatory lists were accessed directly from their publicly available sources: the AcademicsForPeace website, the "Not in Our Name" Google Document, the May 2021 declaration website, and published reporting on other campaigns.
2.4 The Limits of the Data — and What It Does Not Claim
This study documents publicly available records only. Faculty who hold private views but have not signed public letters or joined public organizations are not captured. Absence from any signatory list does not indicate a pro-Israel position. FSJP membership lists are not fully public. Hebrew language instructors rarely sign political letters and are underrepresented. The "Not in Our Name" letter includes students and staff alongside faculty; this study extracted faculty signatories only.
The Petition Machine
Nine campaigns, 2021–2026 — the evidence behind every number.
Nine petition campaigns spanning from May 2021 through Spring 2026 form the evidentiary backbone of this study.
| Campaign | Date | Total Signatories | DB Records |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 2021 JS/IS Declaration | May 2021 | ~100 JS/IS faculty | 298 |
| Palestine and Praxis | May 2021 | 7,500+ academics | Sampled |
| AcademicsForPeace (4 petitions) | Aug 2023–Mar 2024 | 700–1,300+ each | 586 |
| JS Ceasefire Letter | Oct 2023 | 100+ | 27 |
| 240 Scholars BDS Letter | Various | 240+ | Sampled |
| 60 Holocaust Scholars Letter | Dec 2023 | 60 | Sampled |
| 1,200 Jewish Professors vs IHRA | May 2024 | 1,200+ | Sampled |
| "Not in Our Name" | March 2025 | 3,400+ | 242 |
| U Michigan Jewish Faculty Letter | March 2025 | 297 | Sampled |
3.1 May 2021: "Statement on Israel/Palestine by Scholars of Jewish Studies and Israel Studies"
Published on a dedicated website and explicitly authored by self-identified scholars of Jewish Studies and Israel Studies. The statement characterized the Zionist movement as "shaped by settler colonial paradigms." It stated that Zionism and the State of Israel have contributed to "unjust, enduring, and unsustainable systems of Jewish supremacy, ethnonational segregation, discrimination, and violence against Palestinians." It endorsed "boycott or other organized economic pressure on Israel" as a legitimate form of faculty protest.
3.2 AcademicsForPeace (August 2023 – March 2024)
Four petitions, each gathering 700 to 1,300+ signatures. The March 2024 petition, titled "Genocide Is Plausible; Stop Arms to Israel," was authored by a Penn State associate professor of History and Jewish Studies who serves as the campaign's national spokesperson. Signatories included two Nobel laureates, multiple National Jewish Book Award winners, Guggenheim Fellows, and MacArthur Fellows.
3.3 "Not in Our Name" (March 2025)
Drafted by Concerned Jewish Faculty & Staff — Boston Area. The letter has gathered 3,400+ signatures from Jewish professors, staff, and students at universities across the United States. It denounced "anyone who invokes our name — and cynical claims of antisemitism — to harass, expel, arrest, or deport members of our campus communities."
3.4 Faculty for Justice in Palestine
FSJP operates 130+ campus chapters. Research has documented that schools with five or more faculty BDS supporters are 7.2 times more likely to experience antisemitic incidents, and that FSJP presence on campus increases the likelihood of physical assaults on Jewish students by more than seven times. New chapters continued to form through 2024 and 2025.
School by School
Columbia to Washington — the counts and the pattern, campus by campus.
| Rank | Institution | On record | Key Findings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Columbia University | 41 | 77 faculty boycotters per national barometer; an Israel & Jewish Studies chair-holder signed 3 petitions; 5 departments with anti-Israel positions |
| 2 | Princeton University | 35 | Judaic Studies fellow signed; 8 AcademicsForPeace signatories; multiple endowed chairs |
| 3 | Penn State University | 32 | AcademicsForPeace national spokesperson; 11 NION signatories |
| 4 | New York University | 31 | 148 faculty boycotters (#1 worst nationally); a Jewish-history emerita signed all petitions |
| 5 | Yale University | 30 | a Jewish-history chair signed NION; a Judaic Studies associate professor signed 2 petitions |
| 6 | University of Chicago | 28 | a Jewish-history professor signed NION; a Hebrew-literature professor signed May 2021 |
| 7 | Brown University | 27 | 3 Judaic Studies faculty signed; first endowed Palestinian Studies chair in America |
| 8 | University of Michigan | 26 | Jewish-center director signed NION; 297 Jewish faculty signed a campus letter |
| 9 | UC Berkeley | 25 | a Hebrew-literature emerita signed NION; FSJP chapter active |
| 10 | UCLA | 24 | Jewish-center director signed; Israel Studies chair signed NION |
| 10 | Stanford University | 24 | a former MESA president co-authored petitions; a Talmud specialist signed May 2021 |
| 10 | University of Washington | 24 | $5M endowment pulled after an Israel Studies chair-holder signed |
The Pattern, Campus by Campus
Columbia (41). An endowed-chair holder in Israel and Jewish Studies signed four separate petitions. A national barometer documented 77 faculty boycotters and five departments holding anti-Israel institutional positions. A professor who publicly fought the trend was suspended; no comparable professional defense was mounted on his behalf.
Penn State (32). The national spokesperson for the AcademicsForPeace campaign — who authored all four of its petitions — teaches History and Jewish Studies here. Eleven affiliated faculty signed "Not in Our Name," and additional chaired faculty signed multiple petitions.
Brown (27). A chaired Holocaust and Genocide Studies scholar signed every major petition; a Judaic Studies senior lecturer supports BDS; another faculty member described Palestinian violence as "a legitimate revolt." Brown hosts the first endowed Palestinian Studies chair at any American university.
Harvard (18). A 2025 hire in Modern Jewish Studies openly identifies as a "counter-Zionist." Multiple Center for Jewish Studies faculty, including a Yiddish preceptor, signed "Not in Our Name."
University of Washington. The holder of an endowed Israel Studies chair signed the May 2021 declaration; the donor responded by pulling the entire $5 million endowment. More than 700 scholars rallied to the chair-holder's defense, and a promotion to full professor followed. Effectively the entire Jewish Studies research faculty at the university appears in the signatory lists.
NYU (148 boycotters — worst nationally). Emeritus professors of modern Jewish history signed every major petition, and the national secretary of FSJP is on the faculty.
Oberlin (~100% of core Jewish Studies faculty). All three core Jewish Studies faculty are signatories; one, a JVP steering-committee member who teaches a course on "Jews and Power," was defended by six leaders of the Association for Jewish Studies — who mounted no comparable defense of pro-Israel faculty targeted elsewhere.
UCLA (24). The director of its principal Jewish center and the holder of its Israel Studies chair both signed; at least 115 faculty endorsed the academic boycott; campus centers co-sponsored events featuring FSJP and JVP speakers.
Michigan (26). The director of its Jewish center signed; 297 Jewish faculty and staff signed a campus letter in March 2025; 1,488 endorsed anti-Israel speech at 2026 commencement.
Yale, Princeton, Chicago, Stanford, Berkeley, and Brandeis. Across all six, chaired professors, program directors, and emeriti in Jewish history, Hebrew literature, Talmud, and Holocaust studies appear on the petitions — including recipients of the Guggenheim, Fulbright, and MacArthur.
Donor Cash, Turned on the Donors
Fourteen endowed chairs, funded to strengthen Jewish scholarship — on the lists.
Endowed chairs are the most prestigious positions in academic life, funded by permanent endowments that Jewish philanthropists established to strengthen Jewish scholarship and education. Fourteen chair-holders are among the signatories — at Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, UCLA, Brandeis, Penn State, Lehigh, George Washington University, Clark, Wake Forest, the University of Louisville, the University of San Francisco, UMass Amherst, Stockton, and the University of Washington, where a single signature cost the program its entire $5 million endowment, pulled by the donor. The money raised to defend Jewish scholarship now underwrites its opposite.
The Faculty Network
Faculty for Justice in Palestine — 130+ chapters, mapped.
FSJP operates 130+ campus chapters. Its stated goals include promoting the academic boycott of Israeli institutions, supporting BDS resolutions, ending study-abroad programs in Israel, and opposing disciplinary measures against pro-Palestinian student activists.
The FSJP steering committee includes faculty from UC Santa Barbara, NYU, Yale, Barnard, George Mason University, UC Santa Cruz, and the Claremont Colleges. At Rutgers, the chapter includes 80+ educators. At Claremont, 40+ faculty formed a chapter in October 2024.
Research has documented a 7.2x correlation between the presence of five or more BDS-supporting faculty and antisemitic incidents on campus. FSJP presence increases the likelihood of physical assaults on Jewish students by more than seven times.
In early 2025, six leaders of the Association for Jewish Studies wrote to defend an FSJP-affiliated, BDS-supporting Jewish Studies professor at Oberlin against public criticism. No comparable professional defense has been documented for pro-Israel faculty who were targeted for their views at other institutions.
Civil War in Holocaust Studies
Scholars split over what counts as genocide.
An endowed Holocaust and Genocide Studies professor at Stockton University called October 7 a "textbook case of genocide" days after the massacre. Sixty Holocaust and genocide scholars signed the letter he organized; an 800-scholar statement followed. The University of Minnesota offered him a directorship, then rescinded it.
Two historians at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem published an essay calling Israel's war "genocide," writing that "most acts of genocide are perceived by their perpetrators as acts of self-defense." In August 2025, the International Association of Genocide Scholars passed a resolution stating that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Chaired Holocaust scholars at Clark, Lehigh, and UMass Amherst are among the signatories. A 2026 article in the Journal of Genocide Research documented "the growing rift between Holocaust scholars over Israel/Palestine."
Every Year Bigger
Every campaign larger than the last.
| Year | Campaign | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| May 2021 | JS/IS Declaration + Palestine and Praxis | ~100 JS/IS faculty + 7,500 academics |
| Aug–Oct 2023 | AcademicsForPeace + JS Ceasefire Letter | 700–1,300 per petition |
| Dec 2023–Mar 2024 | AcademicsForPeace (continued) + 60 Holocaust scholars | 1,300+ per petition |
| May 2024 | 1,200 Jewish Professors vs IHRA | 1,200+ |
| March 2025 | "Not in Our Name" | 3,400+ |
| March 2025 | U Michigan Jewish Faculty Letter | 297 (campus-specific) |
| Spring 2026 | U Michigan Commencement | 1,488 (campus-specific) |
Outside Israel’s Mainstream
Measured against Israel's own political spectrum — and the critics answered.
9.1 Where These Positions Sit on the Israeli Political Spectrum
The positions documented in this study — characterizing Zionism as "settler colonialism," endorsing academic boycotts of Israeli universities, using the phrase "Jewish supremacy" to describe Israel's political structure — are not held by any mainstream political party in Israel. The positions that are classified — BDS, "settler colonialism," "Jewish supremacy," "genocide" — exist outside the mainstream of Israeli political discourse.
9.2 Anticipated Criticism — and the Answers
Criticism: Signing a petition does not necessarily reflect classroom teaching.
Response: Correct. This study measures publicly documented advocacy. It does not assess classroom conduct, syllabi, or grading practices.
Criticism: Faculty have academic freedom to hold and express these views.
Response: Correct. This study makes no recommendation regarding employment, tenure, or academic standing. It documents publicly available activity.
Criticism: Some of the positions classified in this study are legitimate political speech.
Response: Correct. The question this study addresses is not whether faculty have a right to their views. It is whether Jewish families, donors, and communal organizations have access to information about what the faculty who teach their children about Judaism are saying publicly about Israel.
By the Numbers
The whole dataset — one table.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Total records audited | 2,499 |
| Records of faculty publicly against Israel | 1,298 (51.9%) |
| Jewish Studies-related faculty identified | 1,014 |
| JS-related faculty on the record | 401 (39.5%) |
| Ivy League records | 332 |
| Ivy League records against Israel | 240 (72.3%) |
| Institutions covered | 1,136 |
| Institutions with at least one flagged professor | 313 |
| Petition campaigns cross-referenced | 9 |
| FSJP chapters documented | 130+ |
| Endowed chair holders on the record | 14 |
| Faculty who signed multiple petitions | 50+ |
| Largest single petition ("Not in Our Name") | 3,400+ signatories |
| Largest institutional concentration (Columbia) | 41 faculty on the record |
| Highest faculty boycotter count (NYU) | 148 per national barometer |
The full database — institutions, titles, fields, and the specific documents each record is tied to — accompanies this report as a separate spreadsheet file.
What It Adds Up To
The widest audit ever — and the trend it exposes.
This is the broadest publicly documented audit of Jewish Studies and Israel Studies faculty ever conducted. It found that 1,298 records — 51.9 percent — belong to faculty publicly on the record against Israel. Among those specifically identified as teaching in these fields, 39.5 percent are on that record. At Ivy League universities, the rate is 72.3 percent. The share rises with prestige and climbs year over year, every petition larger than the last.
A June 2026 AP-NORC poll found a third of American Jews now accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza. That figure is not spontaneous. It is the downstream product of what this audit documents at the source — the classroom. The uncomfortable conclusion the data forces is this: a large and growing share of Diaspora Jewish academic life, including many of the scholars paid to teach Judaism itself, now stands among the enemies of Israel and the Jewish state.
The database will be updated annually. Corrections, additions, and verification requests are invited. The methodology is public. The data is sourced.
📥 Download the full 2,499-record database (Google Sheet) — institutions, fields, titles, and the specific documents signed.
Ronn Torossian is an Israeli-American entrepreneur, author and philanthropist. He is the author of two best-selling editions of For Immediate Release.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
BDS: Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions — an international campaign promoting economic and academic pressure on Israel.
FSJP: Faculty for Justice in Palestine — a network of 130+ faculty chapters on US campuses that promotes the academic boycott of Israeli institutions and advocates for Palestinian liberation.
JVP: Jewish Voice for Peace — a US-based organization that supports BDS and identifies as anti-Zionist.
AJS: Association for Jewish Studies — the primary professional body for Jewish Studies scholars in the United States, with 1,900+ individual members and 70+ institutional members.
AIS: Association for Israel Studies — the professional body for Israel Studies scholars.
NAPH: National Association of Professors of Hebrew — the professional body for Hebrew language faculty in the US, founded in 1950.
IAGS: International Association of Genocide Scholars — the world's largest academic association for genocide studies.
IHRA Definition: The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of antisemitism, which some scholars oppose because they believe it conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
Endowed Chair: A prestigious faculty position funded by a permanent endowment, typically named after the donor. Holders of endowed chairs represent the highest-ranking faculty in their field.
Documented Public Act Against Israel: A publicly verifiable action — such as signing a petition, joining an organization, or publishing a statement — that meets the study's classification criteria as defined in the Methodology section.
Frequently Asked Questions
How was the audit conducted, start to finish?
Researchers built faculty rosters from public university websites (July–August 2026), then cross-referenced every name against nine documented petition campaigns spanning May 2021 to Spring 2026, plus organizational membership records and public statements. Each match was confirmed against the original public signatory lists by name, institution, department, and title.
Is this the largest study of its kind?
Yes. At 2,499 records across 313 institutions and nine petition campaigns, it is the broadest publicly documented audit of Jewish Studies and Israel Studies faculty ever conducted in the United States.
Which faculty were included in the audit — and which were left out?
Included: tenured and tenure-track faculty, clinical and visiting professors, emeriti, senior lecturers, and postdoctoral fellows across the Association for Jewish Studies (70+ institutional members), the Association for Israel Studies (~30 centers and chairs), and programs identified via IPEDS and College Factual. Excluded: graduate students without a formal teaching appointment. Joint appointments are counted once; faculty who moved are listed at their most recent institution.
Does the study name individual professors?
No. The published study reports the trend in aggregate — by institution, field, petition, and rank — rather than singling out individuals. The full record set is available in the accompanying database for verification.
What are the study’s limitations?
It captures public acts on the record only — private views without a public statement are not counted, and absence from a list is not evidence of a pro-Israel position. FSJP membership lists are not fully public, Hebrew-language instructors rarely sign political letters and are underrepresented, and the “Not in Our Name” letter mixed in students and staff, from which only faculty were extracted.
Does the study call for any professor to be fired or disciplined?
No. It makes no recommendation on employment, tenure, or academic standing, and it does not assess classroom conduct. It documents publicly available activity so that families, donors, and communal organizations can see what the faculty teaching Judaism are saying publicly about Israel.
How do the documented positions compare to mainstream Israeli politics?
They sit outside it. Calling Zionism “settler colonialism,” endorsing academic boycotts of Israeli universities, or using “Jewish supremacy” to describe Israel’s political structure is not the platform of any mainstream Israeli party. Positions that are mainstream in Israel — two-state support, criticism of specific government policies — were deliberately excluded from the count.
