'Israel Studies' on US campuses 'at the brink of extinction' – JPPI report

A new report from the Jewish People Policy Institute warns that Israel Studies programs on American college campuses are 'at the brink of extinction,' citing hostile campus climates and other challenges.

“The academic endeavor of Israel Studies is at a crossroads and seems unsustainable in the contemporary campus climate,” the 73-page report warned. It specifically indicated that Israel Studies are threatened by anti-Israel activism, as well as funding and strategy issues.

The escalating hatred against Israel is closely linked to the dramatic rise in antisemitism on U.S. and other Western campuses following the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre in 2023. Columbia University emerged as “ground zero” for pro-Hamas and anti-Israel activities on American campuses.

In January, activists wearing keffiyehs disrupted a Columbia University class taught by Israeli Professor Avi Shilon, who was teaching the history of modern Israel. The activists accused the class of 'normalizing genocide,' likely in reference to Israel’s military operations in Gaza against Hamas. They also disrupted the session by throwing fliers at students with slogans such as 'Crush Zionism.

Although anti-Zionists often deny harboring antisemitic sentiments, activists at Columbia University displayed imagery – such as a combat boot over a Star of David – that many view as invoking antisemitic themes, given the symbol's national and religious significance to the Jewish people and the State of Israel.

Sara Yael Hirschhorn, a historian at Haifa University who authored the report, warned that some threats to Israel study programs predate the Oct. 7 attack. She said, “The field is not what it was 20 years ago. The climate has changed. We have to talk about that.”

“Academics have approached various topics out of their own interests or career trajectories, all of which have been haphazardly cobbled together into what has been called a discipline,” according to the JPPI report.

However, despite many visible challenges, not all scholars agree with the report’s conclusions.

Dr. Csaba Nikolenyi, an Israel Studies scholar at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, argued, “Since October 7, 2023, we have all been operating in very, very different climates, but the academic field of Israel studies, I don’t see this going through any crisis.”

Israel-focused academic programs began in the 1980s, initially concentrating on topics such as Israeli foreign policy, Jewish culture and religion, the kibbutz movement, and Jewish and Arab literature. Over time, however, the field became increasingly politicized, particularly with the emergence of the so-called 'New Historians,' who emphasized contentious themes such as colonialism and nation-building.

“Israel Studies is suffering from a profound identity crisis by privileging inclusivity over academic rigor and methodological coherence, it has lost sight of its self-definition and priorities,” the report warned.

However, Nikolenyi argues that the diversity has become the strength of study programs.

“If Israel Studies were not as plural and diverse as it is, then I would be nervous,” he said.

Although Israel is geographically part of the Middle East, many Middle East studies departments on Western campuses have been criticized for promoting views perceived as hostile toward Israel. The report also noted that students may hesitate to enroll in courses on Israel or Zionism due to concerns about potential professional or social consequences. Zionism – the Jewish national movement – is often portrayed by critics as a form of 'white colonialism,' a characterization that scholars and supporters argue misrepresents its historical and cultural roots.

Trends on campuses have “institutionalized a series of discourses that frame Israel and the Jews solely as ahistorical ‘white oppressors’ within a broader frame of settler colonialism and state violence,” the report warned.

In November 2024, Prof. Hedy Wald, a scholar at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, warned that antisemitism on U.S. campuses since Oct. 7, 2023, had become reminiscent of ”echoes of the Holocaust.”

"Aspects of anti-Jewish hostile learning environments we have personally observed in medical schools include tearing down posters of Jewish hostages, including children; demonization of Jews, accusing Jewish students of complicity with genocide, wearing banned graduation regalia portraying Israel's destruction, and Holocaust distortion or inversion," Wald stated.