Illustrative: A student puts on their anti-Israel graduation cap reading “From the river to the sea” at the People’s Graduation, hosted for Mahmoud Khalil and other students from New York University. Photo: Angelina Katsanis via Reuters Connect

Haverford College in Pennsylvania will institute new antisemitism prevention courses at every level of the institution to fulfill the conditions of a civil rights settlement it negotiated in August with the federal government to resolve claims that it illegally allowed Jewish students to be bullied over the issue of Zionism, Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, and the Israel-Hamas war which resulted from it.

The California-based Center for Combating Antisemitism (CCA) announced the initiative last week in a joint press release issued with the Deborah Project, the latter of which represented a group of Jewish students who came forward to accuse Haverford of failing to observe federal civil rights protections which safeguard racial and ethnic minorities against abuse.

“Recognizing antisemitism is the first step to defeating it,” CCA executive director Peggy Shapiro said in a statement. “But recognition is not easy. Antisemitism is a hatred that mutates as it infects. Its language changes, its disguises change, and its targets may be described in ways intended to conceal the underlying anti-Jewish animus.”

Haverford College is not the only higher education institution whose campus was deluged with antisemitic activity during the 2023-2026 academic years. While the school committed some unforced errors, such as praising a professor who denounced Jewish community advocates as “racist genocidaires” in October 2023, it cracked down on unauthorized demonstrations in which students, as well as outside actors, clamored antisemitic slogans and other inciting rhetoric.

In February, the school identified and banned from campus at least two members of a pro-Hamas group that disrupted an event featuring Middle East scholar Haviv Rettig Gur. As seen in footage of the disturbing incident shared on the X social media platform, one of the individuals, who concealed her face with a keffiyeh scarf in the style popularized by the Palestinian Liberation Organization terrorist leader Yasser Arafat, screamed “When Gaza has burned, you will all burn too.”

Following the incident, a public relations official for Haverford College told The Algemeiner that it had not hesitated to respond to actions it described as “clear violations” of the code of conduct, which draws a hard line between speech and racial abuse. The statement noted that there was also violence during the disruption, noting “at least one physical altercation between attendees.”

In last week’s press release, Lori Lowenthal Marcus of the Deborah Project noted that Haverford College is poised to deter future challenges before they emerge given the richness of the CCA curriculum.

“I unqualifiedly recommend CCA for everyone who needs a first-rate training module that deals with the history as well as the modern permutations of antisemitism without neglecting any of the important details,” she said. “Its embedded quiz and queries ensures that information will be retained by those who are lucky enough to experience the CCA training.”

Haverford is reportedly enacting the training courses and its supplement modules gradually, as they were not presented during orientation activities held in late August. The working relationship between the organizations is most amiable, however, and the college has committed a series of public statements to ensuring that Jewish students receive an education unalloyed by fear.

Higher education is seeing a number of new initiatives for supporting the Jewish community in anticipation of the 2026-2027 academic year.

Columbia University confirmed in July that it will begin programming at its Tel Aviv Global Center, three years after first announcing the project, moving ahead with an academic hub intended to expand research, teaching, and partnerships with Israel despite pressure from anti-Zionist activists to cancel it. The center will become the 11th site in Columbia’s international network. It is not a branch campus, but a hub designed to connect Columbia faculty, students, alumni, and programs with Israeli institutions and researchers. Its initial priorities include climate change, technology and entrepreneurship, science, public health, and medicine.

Also in July, Gratz College joined two international partners to launch the Contemporary Antisemitism Studies Association (CASA), a new global academic body dedicated to rigorous, interdisciplinary research on anti-Jewish hatred.

CASA grew out of a partnership among Gratz, a Jewish college in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia; the London Center for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism; and the Elizabeth and Tony Comper Center for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism at the University of Haifa. Under the arrangement, the London Center will serve as CASA’s administrative center, Gratz will host its new academic journal, and the Comper Center will build out an international research hub and fellowship programs.

Meanwhile, academia in the regional south is boosting its reputation as a safe haven for Jewish students with Hillel International announcing the launch of its first ever undergraduate office for support and mentorship on the campus of Clemson University in South Carolina. Clemson’s growing Jewish population precipitated the initiative, Hillel said, noting that it has increased “fivefold” in recent years.

Speaking to The Algemeiner, Clemson Hillel faculty adviser and historian Rebecca Shimoni Stoil said that Clemson pulled this off by, more than other institutions, acting quickly to respond to rising anti-Jewish hatred. Its efforts, she said, went beyond fulfilling the letter of the law and maintaining positive public relations. The work mattered, as it aimed to create a home where Jewish students can thrive regardless of what is happening in the wider world.

“Clemson has been wonderful, and our students would say that much of the same,” she explained, noting that students are also drawn to the South Carolina sun. “It’s been a positive environment, and it continues to be a positive environment, allowing students to build Jewish community in truly meaningful and invigorating ways.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.