Rafael Lemkin’s Family Fights to Have Anti-Israel Group Stop Using Name of Famed Zionist Who Coined Term ‘Genocide’

Ailin Vilches Arguello

Raphael Lemkin being interviewed on Feb. 13, 1949. Photo: Screenshot

The family of Raphael Lemkin — the Polish-born Jewish lawyer who coined the term “genocide” and helped draft the Genocide Convention after World War II — is taking legal action against a stridently anti-Israel group based in the US, accusing the nonprofit organization of corrupting his family name and legacy.

Joseph Lemkin, the cousin of Raphael Lemkin and closest living relative, confirmed to The Algemeiner that his family is initiating legal proceedings against the Pennsylvania-based Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, with the support of the European Jewish Association (EJA), to stop the misuse of his family name.

“From our perspective, the Lemkin Institute has no right to use his name. Their actions are completely opposed to what he stood for,” Lemkin told The Algemeiner, referring to his cousin. “He was a passionate Zionist who dedicated all his efforts and resources to one cause: the adoption of the Genocide Convention.”

Lemkin’s father was Raphael Lemkin’s first cousin, and he said the two men had a close relationship.

First reported by The Algemeiner, the institute has used the Lemkin name to advance an agenda of extreme anti-Israel activism, which Lemkin’s family called a “shameful betrayal” of their legacy.

Initially registered in Pennsylvania as a nonprofit organization in 2021, the institute received US federal tax-exempt status two years later.

Since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the organization has shifted toward aggressive anti-Israel political advocacy, backing pro-Hamas campus protests and reaching millions on social media with posts that falsely accuse Israel of genocide.

Less than a week after the Oct. 7 atrocities, for example, the institute released a “genocide alert” calling the Palestinian terrorist group’s onslaught an “unprecedented military operation against Israel.”

Comparing Israel’s defensive military actions against Hamas to the Holocaust, the institute accused the Jewish state of carrying out a “genocide” against Palestinians — the very term Raphael Lemkin coined in 1943. Israel had not even launched its ground offensive in Gaza at the time of the social media posts.

Days later, the Lemkin Institute called on the International Criminal Court “to indict Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the crime of #genocide in light of the siege and bombardment of #Gaza and the many expressions of genocidal intent.” Israel still had not initiated its ground campaign.

Since then, the organization’s vocal anti-Israel advocacy has continued unabated for the past two years, accusing the Jewish state of genocide and terrorism while largely staying silent about Hamas.

According to the Lemkin family, such statements distort history and undermine their legacy, but even more, they disrespect the memory of six million Jews.

“The institute has used this term to promote an inflammatory, antisemitic stance against Israel — completely contrary to the principles he stood for,” Joseph Lemkin told The Algemeiner, referring to his cousin.

“Astonishingly, they have even expressed support for Hezbollah and Hamas — both internationally designated terrorist organizations — while smearing Israel,” he continued.

Now, legal steps are underway to hold the institute accountable, stop it from exploiting the Lemkin name to raise money, and end its Holocaust comparisons.

After first sending letters demanding that the institute change its name, the Lemkin family is now awaiting a response — and if no voluntary action is taken or Pennsylvania officials fail to intervene, the matter will be taken to court, Lemkin told The Algemeiner.

Beyond its communications with the institute, the EJA legal team also sent letters to Gov. Josh Shapiro and Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations regarding this issue.

“The Lemkin Institute, through its very name, as well as its marketing and other materials, represents itself as an embodiment of Mr. Lemkin’s ideology. In reality, the Lemkin Institute’s policies, positions, activities, and publications are anathema to Mr. Lemkin’s belief system,” the letter reads.

“The Lemkin Institute is not authorized by Raphael Lemkin’s family, his estate, or any custodian of his legacy to rely upon his name for any purpose,” it continues. “The European Jewish Association and Mr. Lemkin’s family are outraged by the Lemkin Institute’s use of Mr. Lemkin’s name, especially in the context of the Lemkin Institute’s anti-Israel agenda.”

EJA Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin has sharply condemned the institute’s actions and statements, saying it has “weaponized a sacred legacy against the very people it was meant to protect.”

“The Lemkin Institute was established to prevent genocide — not to distort its definition or fuel antisemitic tropes,” Margolin said in a statement.

Raphael Lemkin was born in Poland in 1900 and eventually escaped the Nazis to the US, where he joined the War Department, documenting Nazi atrocities and preparing for the prosecution of Nazi crimes at the Nuremberg trials. He dedicated much of his life to making the world recognize the horrors of the Holocaust and designating mass murder as a crime which could be prosecuted through international law. Forty-nine members of his family, including his parents, were killed in the Holocaust. He died in 1959.

A 2017 article by James Loeffler, who now teaches at Johns Hopkins University, described what he called “the forgotten Zionism of Raphael Lemkin.” Loeffler noted that while “dead international lawyers rarely become celebrities,” Lemkin “has emerged as a potent symbol for activists and politicians across the world.”

Loeffler traced Lemkin’s work as an editor and columnist of a Jewish publication, Zionist World. “The task of the Jewish people is … [to become] a permanent national majority in its own national home,” Lemkin wrote in one such column.

“It is not enough to know Zionism,” Lemkin wrote in another column quoted by Loeffler. “One must imbibe its spirit, one must make Zionism a part of one’s very own ‘self,’ and be prepared to make sacrifices on its behalf.”

Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, founder and executive director of the Lemkin Institute, told the online news site EJewish Philanthropy that her organization was named after Lemkin to “bring his name back into public discourse” but “there was no clear person to contact” when naming the institute in 2021.

“We don’t want to cause unhappiness for anybody in the Lemkin family. We did ask to know what legal basis exists for the complaint, and we have not received any response to that specific question,” she added.

Spain’s PM Sánchez Faces Backlash for Fueling Anti-Israel Hostility Amid Surge in Antisemitic Incidents

Ailin Vilches Arguello

Cycling – Vuelta a Espana – Stage 21 – Alalpardo to Madrid – Madrid, Spain – Sept. 14, 2025: Barriers are smashed by anti-Israel protesters during Stage 21. Photo: REUTERS/Ana Beltran

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is facing backlash from his country’s political leaders and Jewish community, who accuse him of fueling antisemitic hostility after incidents at the Vuelta a España disrupted the prestigious cycling race.

Amid a sharp rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes and anti-Israel sentiment, Lorenzo Rodríguez, mayor of Castrillo Mota de Judíos in northern Spain, accused the country’s leader of “fueling a discourse of hatred” against Israel and the Jewish people.

“The government is fostering antisemitism that will prove deeply damaging for Spain,” Rodríguez said in an interview with the local outlet El Español.

“Sánchez’s moves are less about serious foreign policy and more about deflecting attention from his trials and failures in governance,” he continued. “Spain isn’t leading anything — it’s merely whitewashing Hamas and other terrorist groups.”

On Sunday, anti-Israel protests forced the finale of the Vuelta a España cycle race to be abandoned as police tried to quell demonstrations against the participation of an Israeli team.

In his interview, Rodríguez blamed Sánchez for fostering a hostile climate in Spain, saying the country is witnessing “hatred toward an entire people.”

He also criticized the Spanish leader for failing to take a strong stand on other international crises, including those in Russia and Venezuela.

“We all recognize that the Palestinian people are suffering, but the solution cannot be to blame the Jewish people,” Rodríguez said.

“People are afraid. There’s growing concern because our town was recently targeted,” he continued. “We are being singled out and threatened even though we have nothing to do with this war.”

Before the incidents on Sunday that led to the race’s cancellation, Sánchez expressed “admiration for the Spanish people mobilizing for just causes like Palestine” through their protests.

Madrid’s Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida strongly condemned Sánchez’s statement, accusing him of encouraging hostility and fueling tensions.

“The prime minister is directly responsible for this violence, as his statements this morning helped instigate the protests,” Martinez-Almeida said after the race was canceled.

“Today is the saddest day since I took office as mayor of this great city,” he continued.

Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Vox party, also criticized Sánchez’s remarks, accusing him of stoking division to maintain his hold on power.

“The psychopath has taken his militias to the streets,” Abascal wrote in a post on X. “He doesn’t care about Gaza. He doesn’t care about Spain. He doesn’t care about anything. But he wants violence in the streets to maintain power.”

Shortly after the incidents, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) publicly denounced the violence, urging authorities to respond quickly and decisively.

“Violence and intimidation have no place in a democratic society and cannot be excused under the guise of freedom of expression,” FCJE said in a statement.

“These violent demonstrations fuel hatred and contribute to a concerning rise in antisemitism in Spain, which we have been warning about over the past two years,” the statement read. “It is unacceptable that violence is justified on ideological grounds and hostility is directed toward the Jewish community”

Since the start of the war in Gaza, Spain has become one of Israel’s fiercest critics, a stance that has only intensified in recent months, coinciding with a shocking rise in antisemitic incidents targeting the local Jewish community — from violent assaults and vandalism to protests and legal actions.

On Monday, Sánchez called for Israel to be barred from international sports events after pro-Palestinian activists disrupted the finale of the Vuelta cycling race in chaotic scenes in Madrid.

“The sports organizations should ask whether it’s ethical for Israel to continue participating in international competitions. Why was Russia expelled after invading Ukraine, yet Israel is not expelled after the invasion of Gaza?” Sánchez said while speaking to members of his Socialist Party.

“Until the barbarity ends, neither Russia nor Israel should be allowed to participate in any international competition,” the Spanish leader continued.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned Sánchez’s remarks, labeling him “an antisemite and a liar.”

“Did Israel invade Gaza on Oct. 7th or did the Hamas terror state invade Israel and commit the worst massacre against the Jews since the Holocaust?” the top Israeli diplomat wrote in a post on X.

The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas started the war in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, when it led an invasion of southern Israel, murdered 1,200 people, and kidnapped 251 hostages while perpetrating widespread sexual violence against the Israeli people.

Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military capabilities and political rule in Gaza.

As part of its anti-Israel campaign, Spain announced on Tuesday that it will boycott next year’s Eurovision Song Contest if Israel participates, citing the country’s military offensive against Hamas in the war-torn enclave.

Last week, Sánchez also unveiled new policies targeting Israel over the war in Gaza, including an arms embargo and a ban on certain Israeli goods.

The Spanish government announced it would bar entry to individuals involved in what it called a “genocide against Palestinians,” block Israel-bound ships and aircraft carrying weapons from Spanish ports and airspace, and enforce an embargo on products from Israeli communities in the West Bank.

In one of its latest attempts to curb Israel’s defensive campaign in Gaza, Spain has canceled a €700 million ($825 million) deal for Israeli-designed rocket launchers, as the government conducts a broader review to systematically phase out Israeli weapons and technology from its armed forces.

Saar has denounced Sánchez’s latest actions, accusing the government in Madrid of antisemitism and of pursuing an escalating anti-Israel campaign aimed at undermining the Jewish state on the international stage.

“The government of Spain is leading a hostile, anti-Israel line, marked by wild, hate-filled rhetoric,” Saar wrote in a post on X, accusing Sánchez’s “corrupt” administration of trying to “divert attention from grave corruption scandals.”

“The obsessive activism of the current Spanish government against Israel stands out in light of its ties with dark, tyrannical regimes — from Iran’s ayatollahs to [Nicolás] Maduro’s government in Venezuela,” the Israeli diplomat continued.

Joseph Goebbels

Naziści też udawali ofiary

Anonim

Podobnie jak dzisiejsza Gaza, w latach 30. i 40. XX wieku nazistowskie Niemcy napadały na swoich sąsiadów z zamiarem ich podboju i zawłaszczenia ich ziem. Podobnie jak Hamas, wierzyli, że ziemie ich sąsiadów należą im z urodzenia, a Niemcy są ofiarą żydowskich machinacji i że to Niemcy są uciskani przez żydowskich ciemiężycieli. Tak jak dzisiaj Izrael, sąsiedzi nazistowskich Niemiec nie chcieli zostać podbici – i dlatego walczyli z niemiecką inwazją. I tak jak dzisiaj Gaza, nazistowskie Niemcy twierdziły potem, że są ofiarą ludobójstwa ze strony krajów, które same wcześniej zaatakowały, i skarżyły się na ataki wymierzone w kobiety i dzieci. Goebbels, niesławny propagandzista Hitlera, wygłaszał opowieści niemal identyczne z tymi, które dziś pojawiają się w obronie Hamasu i Gazy.

Goebbels, apel o zemstę (5 czerwca 1943):

„Prowadzą wojnę przeciwko morale naszego narodu; zabijają cywilów, starców, kobiety i dzieci, i ledwo już próbują przykrywać swój haniebny, krwawy terror płaszczem humanitaryzmu… My, dzisiejsi Niemcy, nie jesteśmy ludźmi, którzy szukają litości u wroga nastawionego na nasze unicestwienie. Każdy angielski komentarz, który dziś uznaje bombardowanie niemieckich kobiet, starców i dzieci za całkowicie humanitarną, a nawet chrześcijańską metodę ujarzmienia Niemiec, stanie się w przyszłości dogodnym argumentem w naszej odpowiedzi na te podłości.”

Goebbels, Bitwa o Berlin:

„Celem anglo-amerykańskiego kierownictwa wojennego jest niewątpliwie sproletaryzowanie dużej części narodu niemieckiego poprzez terror powietrzny, aby uczynić nas podatnymi na ich kłamliwą i obłudną propagandę. To niemal krwawa ironia, że zrzucając niewyobrażalne ilości bomb burzących i zapalających na gęsto zaludnione dzielnice naszych wielkich miast, wróg jednocześnie zrzuca grube stosy obłudnych ulotek. Wydaje się, że naprawdę wierzą, iż nasi mężczyźni i kobiety, którzy stracili wszystko w wyniku tego tchórzliwego i całkowicie nieżołnierskiego sposobu prowadzenia wojny, usiądą w blasku swoich płonących domów, być może obok zwłok swoich niewinnych dzieci, i przeczytają te bezwartościowe ulotki, dając się pouczać przez skorumpowaną brytyjską plutokrację… Gdy niebo nad Berlinem staje się krwiste w nocach ciężkich nalotów terrorystycznych, wszyscy z bólem i goryczą myślimy o ogromie cierpienia i żalu, który znów spada na tysiące naszych współobywateli.”

Goebbels, Sylwester 1943:

„Wróg popełnił wszelkie możliwe zbrodnie przeciwko ludzkości, kulturze i cywilizacji. Są duchowo tak zepsuci, że chwalą się tym publicznie. Rabują uczciwe i porządne narody, by napełnić kieszenie swoich baronów. Skazują miliony na głód i setki tysięcy na śmierć z głodu, by uczynić ich politycznie biernymi. Mordują ogromne liczby kobiet i dzieci, mając nadzieję, że ich niewyobrażalne barbarzyństwo osłabi wolę i zniszczy morale mężów i ojców. Bombardują i palą ponad dwa tysiące lat europejskiego dziedzictwa kulturowego.”

Goebbels, Młodzież i wojna:

„Skoro nasz wróg prowadzi wojnę nawet przeciwko dzieciom, to dzieci także muszą odegrać swoją rolę. Podczas Wielkiej Wojny angielska blokada była szczególnie wymierzona w niemieckie kobiety i dzieci, i miała kluczowy wpływ na to, że w decydującym momencie zabrakło nam sił, by stawić czoła angielskiej i francuskiej groźbie.”

Goebbels – na pierwszej linii:

„Oskarżam wroga o brutalny terror powietrzny, prowadzony jedynie po to, by torturować bezbronną ludność cywilną, by zadać jej cierpienie, grozę, ból i śmierć – wszystko po to, by zmusić ją do zdrady swojego narodu. Taka próba nigdy się nie powiedzie. Te tchórzliwe czyny przyniosą jedynie wieczną hańbę narodom, których rządy prowadzą tak podłą i zdradziecką wojnę przeciwko kobietom, starcom i dzieciom… Wróg wie, że wyrządza jedynie ograniczone szkody naszym zakładom zbrojeniowym i przemysłowi wojennemu. To nie jego cel. Jego celem jest torturowanie bezbronnych cywilów, przynoszenie śmierci do ich domów i próba złamania niemieckiego morale. To jego ostatnia próba ratowania beznadziejnej strategii wojennej. Niezliczone zamordowane kobiety, starcy i dzieci świadczą przeciwko anglo-amerykańskim plutokratom. Przyłączają się do mnie w oskarżeniu strategii wojskowej, która drwi ze wszelkich standardów ludzkiej przyzwoitości. Niezliczone zniszczone szkoły, szpitale, kościoły i zabytki kultury podnoszą ręce spośród ruin, by potępić taką strategię wojenną.”

„Anglo-amerykańskie dowództwo wojskowe różni się tylko tym, że nie tylko nie robi żadnych rozróżnień między mężczyznami, kobietami a dziećmi, ale nawet nie chce tego robić.”

Goebbels – Morale jako decydujący czynnik w wojnie:

„Te działania są zgodne z naturą anglo-amerykańskich plutokratów. Podczas pierwszej wojny światowej próbowali zdemoralizować naród niemiecki poprzez bezwzględną kampanię głodową wymierzoną w kobiety i dzieci. Dziś próbują tego samego poprzez terror powietrzny. Nie zaprzeczam, że wrogie naloty kosztowały nas wiele majątku i krwi i powodują wszelkiego rodzaju trudności. Wróg wie o tym równie dobrze jak my, bo sam przez coś podobnego przeszedł latem i jesienią 1940 roku – choć wtedy niemiecka Luftwaffe atakowała wyłącznie cele militarne i przemysłowe – za to dzisiejsze ataki wroga są skierowane niemal wyłącznie przeciwko ludności cywilnej, a więc naszemu morale.”

Podobnie jak Gaza, naziści próbowali przepisać historię, by przedstawić się jako ofiary ataku, a nie agresorów – i twierdzili, że po prostu się bronią.

Hitler: Przemówienie w marcu 1941:

„Gdy Anglia i Francja wypowiedziały tę wojnę, Anglia natychmiast rozpoczęła walkę przeciwko życiu cywilnemu. Do blokady z czasów Wielkiej Wojny – tej wojny przeciwko kobietom i dzieciom – dodała tym razem wojnę powietrzną i ognistą przeciwko spokojnym wioskom i miastom.”

Goebbels, „Opór za wszelką cenę”:

„Jeśli wróg zwycięży, Niemcy staną się cmentarzem. Nasz naród umrze z głodu i zginie, poza milionami deportowanych na Syberię jako niewolnicza siła robocza. W takiej sytuacji każdy środek jest uzasadniony.”

Goebbels – Żydzi są winni!”

„Jeśli przegramy tę wojnę, ci niewinnie wyglądający Żydzi zamienią się w rozwścieczone wilki. Zaakceptują to jako przyzwolenie na zemstę – na naszych kobietach i dzieciach.”

Goebbels twierdził, że nazistowskie Niemcy to „szlachetny i porządny naród, który nie pragnie niczego więcej niż uczciwego i wolnego życia”. Nie do odróżnienia od propagandystów z Gazy, którzy twierdzą, że celem Hamasu jest „wolność”.

Tak – również powoływali się na prawo międzynarodowe i żądali, by ich chroniono.

Goebbels, „Opór za wszelką cenę”:

„Tam gdzie prawo międzynarodowe dopuszcza torturowanie i gwałcenie dziesiątki tysięcy niemieckich kobiet torturowanych i gwałconych na Wschodzie, dziesiątki tysięcy niemieckich dzieci zamordowanych w tchórzliwy i okrutny sposób, ofiary barbarzyńskiego terroru bombowego wroga, wszystkie normalne zasady prowadzenia wojny już dawno zostały przez wroga odrzucone.”

Ta retoryka nie różni się niczym od tej, jaką stosują zwolennicy Gazy. Korzystają z dokładnie tego samego podręcznika propagandy – przesuwają punkt ciężkości debaty z wojny sprawiedliwej przeciwko agresorowi, winnemu potwornych zbrodni przeciwko ludzkości, na rzekome masowe mordowanie niewinnych kobiet i dzieci bez powodu. Wszystkie działania, które doprowadziły do obecnej sytuacji, zostają całkowicie zapomniane. Jedyne, co zaskakuje, to jak niewiele ta retoryka się zmieniła – można by pomyśleć, że po 70 latach zdążyliby zaktualizować przekaz. Termin „ludobójstwo” nie istniał aż do 1944 roku – został stworzony właśnie po to, by opisać zbrodnie tych nazistów, którzy biadolili nad losem swojego narodu.

Wyobraźmy sobie, jak skuteczna mogłaby być ta propaganda, gdyby naziści mieli dostęp do smartfonów i internetu – choć i tak potrafili fabrykować materiały filmwe przy pomocy dostępnej im technologii.

Troska o cywilów w Gazie – jeśli jest szczera – jest oczywiście zrozumiała, ale nie ulega wątpliwości, że dla wielu zwolenników Hamasu cierpienie jej mieszkańców Gazy to tylko narzędzie do wybielania Hamasu i zmiany narracji, dokładnie tak jak próbował to robić Goebbels. Jemu się to nie udało – i ja również mam nadzieję, że im się też nie uda.

Link do oryginału: https://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-nazis-played-victim-too-guest-post.html

Elder of Ziyon, 14 września 2025

Daughter of Nazi Who Seized Painting Looted From Jewish Art Dealer Put Under House Arrest in Argentina

Shiryn Ghermezian

Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring. Photo: German Federal Archives

The daughter of a high-ranking Nazi official, who took a painting stolen from a Jewish art dealer during World War II, has been put under house arrest by Argentina’s federal court as officials continue to search for the missing artwork.

Friedrich Kadgien was an SS officer and senior financial aide to Nazi leader Hermann Goering. Kadgien fled to Switzerland after World War II and then moved to Argentina, where he died in 1979.

In late August, the 17th century painting “Portrait of a Lady” by Italian painter Giuseppe Ghislandi was spotted in photos that were part of a real estate listing of a home owned by Kadgien’s daughter, Patricia Kadgien, in the coastal city of Mar del Plata, near Buenos Aires. Pictures of her home were posted on the website of the real estate agency Robles Casas & Campos, and the painting was seen hanging on a wall behind a couch, according to an investigation conducted by the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad (AD).

The artwork, which is a portrait of Contessa Colleoni, is on the international list of lost art and the official Dutch list of artworks looted by the Nazis during World War II, AD reported. It was part of an art collection owned by Dutch Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, who died in 1940 at the age of 42 during an attempt to flee the Nazis for England. Before his death, Goudstikker helped fellow Jews leave Nazi-occupied Europe. The Nazis reportedly stole or bought under duress more than 1,000 pieces owned by Goudstikker, including “Portrait of a Lady.”

After the artwork was seen in the real estate listing, police in Argentina raided Kadgien’s home, but when authorities arrived, the painting was missing and had been replaced with a tapestry that featured horses. Kadgien and her husband have now been put under house arrest for 72 hours and accused of covering up a crime of theft due to their possession and concealment of “Portrait of a Lady,” according to the local news outlet La Nacion. Police also conducted three raids on other properties owned by the family by Monday night.

Kadgien and her husband submitted a claim to a court arguing that they own the painting. They reportedly claimed that due to the amount of time that has passed since the work was taken, Argentina’s statute of limitations on any claim by its original owner or their heirs has expired. They also suggested that Argentina’s courts maintain custody of the painting until it can be determined who legally owns the piece.

Marei von Saher, Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law and only surviving heir, said she will take legal action to have the painting returned to her family.

Year three of the siege on Jewish students begins

Jonathan S. Tobin

A protester holds a sign reading “Free Speech for Columbia Students” over a large crowd gathered for a pro-Palestinian protest near campus, May 21, 2025. Photo by Madison Swart/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images.

By the end of the second academic year since the Hamas-led Palestinian Arab attack against southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, the unprecedented increase in antisemitism on American college campuses appeared to have abated. Some of the steam seemed to have gone out of the organized mobs of pro-Hamas demonstrators who took part in encampments and building takeovers while chanting for the destruction of Israel and Jewish genocide (“From the river to the sea”) and for terrorism against Jews wherever they lived (“Globalize the intifada”).

More importantly, the administrators who tolerated and encouraged the abuse of Jews—something they never would have stood for had the victims been any other minority group—had met a force they feared just as much, if not more, than truculent leftist faculty members and students. President Donald Trump came into the picture with an aggressive and ambitious plan to make campuses safe for Jewish students and roll back factors that had made the post-Oct. 7 surge of antisemitism possible.

By the time this past spring semester had ended, the second-term president’s effective threats of defunding those institutions that had tolerated and encouraged Jew-hatred had forced many schools to shut down the wave of illegal activity. The high tide that had flooded colleges under the Biden administration seemed to have ebbed.

Two forces collide

Still, as students return to campus for the fall semester, complacency about the problem would be a mistake. If anything, the coming months could turn out to be even more problematic for Jewish students as two equally powerful forces collide: the anti-Israel and antisemitic fervor that is the result of the war in Gaza eclipsing every other left-wing cause in importance, and the determination of Trump to end the reign of woke leftism in academia.

In recent months, as the campuses quieted down for the summer, the drumbeat of incitement against Israel, Zionism and Jews has increased rather than died down. Hamas propaganda about Israel committing “genocide” in Gaza and deliberately starving Palestinians in the Strip has been mainstreamed by corporate media outlets, making headlines worldwide.

These blood libels have become part of the conventional wisdom about the Middle East among liberal and left-wing elites in journalism, academia, cultural establishments and unions, as well as in the Democratic Party. That has caused even many Jews who fear being out of sync with liberal fashion to engage in unfair criticism of Israel, which essentially legitimizes anti-Zionist invective and the cause of letting the Hamas monsters behind the unspeakable atrocities survive the war they started on Oct. 7.

Most schools now understand that Trump means business and that he fully intends to punish academic institutions that let Jew-hatred flourish with defunding measures that will devastate their budgets. While most of them are far from ready to comply with the full range of demands, none want their campuses to become the focus of administration or congressional inquiries, let alone wake up and discover that Washington is pulling the money that represents the lifeblood for even the richest of universities.

That means they will, as many were in the spring, be ready to suspend and expel students who engage in campus takeovers. Nevertheless, the forces behind the pro-Hamas mobs are just as determined to exploit the successes in the information wage that the terrorists, their funders and enablers in the media have won.

So, as American higher education reopens for business, it’s far from clear which of these two immovable forces will prevail. The one thing we do know is that the stakes in this battle of wills between liberal educational bureaucrats and the Republican administration are not merely a matter of political advantage for Trump or his opponents.

Those at risk if the administration’s defunding threats and justified demands for reforms to abolish the root causes of campus antisemitism are ignored or fail to have the intended effect will not be Trump’s appointees. It is Jewish students who will suffer if administrators believe that they are better off appeasing leftist antisemites instead of the president. Their ability to move about their schools without fear of intimidation and even violence, as well as to engage in academic life without having to disavow their people, their faith and Israel, hinges on whether the administration makes it clear that the consequences of another antisemitic surge will prove serious.

A woke bureaucracy

The forces behind the pro-Hamas agitation on campus have not been eliminated by Trump. The same factors that had ignited the firestorm of Jew-hatred throughout many of the country’s institutions of higher learning remain in place.

The administration’s campaign to deal with campus antisemitism came down like a ton of bricks on elite institutions like Columbia and Harvard. The president’s task force dealing with the subject demanded that they not only take stringent measures to curb the activities of the pro-Hamas mobs but also address the inherent factors that had made them possible.

Trump’s ambitious goal was not only to make schools safer for Jewish students but to roll back the hold of leftist doctrines that made the post-Oct. 7 troubles inevitable. While a turning point may have been reached in which these forces will now start to decline, these institutions have not been converted from woke strongholds to their previous position as defenders of the Western canon, the neo-Marxists have warred against.

The reign of bureaucrats implementing the woke catechism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) that sought to exacerbate racial divisions, as well as falsely labeling Jews as “white” oppressors, is largely still there. So, too, are the overwhelmingly leftist faculties and administrators who have been thoroughly indoctrinated in the toxic myths of critical race theory, intersectionality and settler-colonialism.

The progressive takeover of academia has been slowly unfolding as the left has completed its long march through American educational institutions for decades. It reached its high point during the moral panic of the Black Lives Matter summer of 2020, following the killing that spring of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. But as interest in dividing all Americans along immutable racial lines waned, the neo-Marxist ideas that animated this movement are held up as a new orthodoxy throughout the humanities and among educational bureaucrats.

Woke policies didn’t just predispose people to dislike Israel. They influenced the curricula taught at schools, as well as the hiring of professors and admissions, creating left-wing bubbles where antisemitic denial of Jewish history and rights became normative. And as “free Palestine,” the phrase that has come to encapsulate a belief in destroying the State of Israel and demonizing Jewish peoplehood, became the primary obsession of the American left, the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks helped mobilize students, faculty, school employees—aided and abetted by outside agitators and funders—to turn campuses into hostile environments for Jews.

Foreign students and funding

So, while the people who run American higher education understood that the election in 2024 of a president who prioritized the fight against antisemitism endangered their businesses, the inmates of these academic asylums remain just as interested in turning the fall 2025 semester into another ordeal for Jews and supporters of Israel.

Nor has the funding for these antisemitic groups, like Students for Justice in Palestine and others, from both foreign sources, such as the emirate of Qatar and left-wing foundations like those controlled by the Soros family, dried up.

One factor that may alleviate the problem has been Trump’s focus on the role of foreign students in campus disturbances.

Trump hasn’t yet banned the entry of students from abroad, especially Muslim-majority countries. Nor has he succeeded, as he still hopes to do, in deporting some of the leaders of the pro-Hamas and antisemitic illegal demonstrations and takeovers.

Syrian-born Mahmoud Khalil, who helped lead the chaos at Columbia, has (with the support of many liberal Democrats who have wrongly depicted him as a martyr to free speech and some empathetic judges) been able to remain in the country, despite the administration’s best effort to deport him.

Many other foreign students, who make up significant percentages of the student bodies of many leading schools like New York University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard and Columbia, have essentially self-deported since they, like Khalil, have undoubtedly lied on their visa applications and are vulnerable to legal action. Others who were similarly intent on coming to the United States to benefit from the education system here while undermining the values of the American republic and spreading Islamist doctrines have taken Trump’s hint and decided not to come to the United States this fall.

But there are likely enough still here, along with a cadre of leftist activists, to create havoc at schools in the name of the supposedly starving Palestinian people and against Israel.

Trump must double down

Averting another situation such as the one that unfolded after Oct. 7 will require two things to happen.

One is that the Trump administration must be prepared to double down on its threats against colleges and universities that behave as they did two years ago and let antisemites run amok.

Moreover, rather than work solely toward striking more deals with schools, such as the one they struck with Columbia, Trump’s team must escalate their efforts to pull funding and force them to give up their DEI bureaucracies, as well as dismantle those departments, like those in Middle East studies, that are engines of antisemitism.

At the same time, those whose job it is to defend Jews, in general, like the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee, and Jewish students, in particular, such as Hillel International, need to understand that they must cease opposing Trump’s efforts to reform academia and end DEI. Measures that are supposed to aid Jewish students that do not attack the reasons why they are under attack are useless and say more about the bankruptcy of many leading mainstream Jewish groups than anything else.

The coming months may prove trying for American Jews as they undergo another trial by fire, fueled by lies about Israel. The same leftist-Islamist alliance that has done so much damage in the last two years seeks to ignite another storm of antisemitism on campuses.

Still, they need to remember that they are not alone in this fight. Trump’s prioritization of the battle against Jew-hatred has put colleges and universities that would otherwise be inclined to abandon their Jewish students on notice that there will be a cost to doing so. We can only hope that this will be enough to force school administrations into actions that will finally rid academia of this scourge.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of the Jewish News Syndicate, a senior contributor for The Federalist, a columnist for Newsweek and a contributor to many other publications. He covers the American political scene, foreign policy, the U.S.-Israel relationship, Middle East diplomacy, the Jewish world and the arts. He hosts the JNS “Think Twice” podcast, both the weekly video program and the “Jonathan Tobin Daily” program, which are available on all major audio platforms and YouTube. Previously, he was executive editor, then senior online editor and chief political blogger, for Commentary magazine. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia and editor of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger. He has won more than 60 awards for commentary, art criticism and other writing. He appears regularly on television, commenting on politics and foreign policy. Born in New York City, he studied history at Columbia University.