Israel studies programs at U.S. universities on brink of collapse amid rising campus anti-Zionism
Israel Studies programs are reportedly facing collapse on American campuses due to growing anti-Zionist sentiment, BDS activism, and pro-Hamas rhetoric.
A new report warns that Israel Studies is increasingly marginalized in higher education environments hostile to pro-Israel perspectives.
The academic field of Israel Studies is on the verge of collapse, according to a new report from the Jerusalem-based Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI).
Despite strong donor backing and public interest, the report finds that Israel Studies is increasingly marginalized in a post-October 7 campus climate.
“Unfortunately, it is not an exaggeration to suggest that the field of Israel Studies is on the brink of collapse within the university context,” the report found.
JPPI’s study continues to state that Israel studies is “incompatible with a campus climate since 10/7 that is increasingly anti-Zionist, pro-BDS, and even cheers Hamas.”
The author of JPPI’s report, Sara Hirschhorn, told Jewish News Syndicate that the waning of Israel studies is “the canary in the coal mine of what’s happening in higher education,” connecting the decline to ongoing concerns about anti-Semitism on college campuses.
Indeed, the report identified that Israel studies programs have increasingly become “the target of the Boycotts, Sanctions, and Divestment (BDS) campaign widely adopted in academia.”
Hirschhorn, the study’s author, is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Chicago, and currently is on Northwestern University’s faculty as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Israel Studies, according to a biography online.
Despite the reported downward trend, there are still numerous Jewish and Israeli studies programs at universities across the country, including at the University of Pennsylvania, UCLA, and Stanford University.
The University of Maryland, for instance, offers a minor in Israel Studies and a graduate program terminating in a master’s degree or doctorate.
The institute states on its website that it “is dedicated to study and research on Israel in all its variety, but also to presenting political, cultural and general interest programs featuring Israel and its place in the Middle East.”
“One Brandeis [University] program has reached in two decades 393 professors at 275 institutions in thirty-five countries on six continents to teach Israel Studies in their respective disciplines,” officials with the Association for Israel Studies told Campus Reform. “They have taught nearly two thousand courses to about 35,000 students.”
Campus Reform has reported that, across the board, concern regarding anti-Semitism has risen sharply in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. According to a 2024 poll, anti-Jewish discrimination is now seen as a “very serious” problem by 31 percent of Americans.
In November, StopAntisemitism published a study that identified a “jaw-dropping 3,000% rise in antisemitic tips and submissions.”
This year, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) published a report which identified a total of 9,354 anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses, a five percent increase from the previous year. The study also found that vandalism targeted at Jews increased by 21 percent.
The future of Israel Studies in higher education remains uncertain as institutions respond to shifting campus climates.
