Northwestern Shows Universities How to Fight Jew-Hate

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Not all universities have been as lackadaisical or uncaring as Columbia and Harvard in fighting antisemitism on their campuses. Northwestern University President Michael Schill appeared before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce for a hearing on antisemitism almost a year ago. This was the same committee that heard the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania. Now, the university released a report in late March describing a decrease in antisemitic incidents.

More on this development, and how the Northwestern example deserves to be emulated, can be found here: “Northwestern touts 88% drop in reports of antisemitism,” by Duncan Agnew, Evanston Round Table, April 1, 2025:

Nearly a year after Northwestern University President Michael Schill appeared on Capitol Hill for a hearing on antisemitism, the university released a report Monday touting an 88% drop in documented incidents of antisemitic discrimination from November 2023 to November 2024.

NU, facing an active Trump administration investigation over alleged antisemitism on campus, said in the update that “like many universities across the nation, Northwestern was not prepared for the antisemitism that occurred last year.”

Among other things, since last summer, the university has revised its handbook and code of conduct, created a new Display and Solicitation Policy banning “unauthorized 3D installations including tents and structures” and updated the Demonstration Policy to limit how, when and where protests may be conducted.

In February, Northwestern also launched an antisemitism training module that is mandatory for all students and adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.

Elder of Ziyon notes:

According to the progress report, the number of reports of antisemitism went down from 26 in November 2023 to 4 in November 2024.

The report indicates that, unlike the bare minimum that has been done on other campuses, Northwestern has taken the problem seriously. It expanded its police force, disciplined 11 students for breaking protest policies and fired a staff member “for violations of the staff policies.”

The Student Code of Conduct policies have been strengthened significantly:

The new Intimidation Standard explicitly prohibits subjecting another person or group to abusive, demeaning, harassing, humiliating, intimidating, threatening or violent behavior that substantially affects the ability of the person or group to learn, work or live in the University environment. Examples of violations to this new policy include physical threats, verbal or written communication to threaten violence, the use of symbols, words or graphics to threaten violence, acts of doxing, and abusive behavior toward a University official or agent acting in performance of their duties, among others. It also prohibits engaging in abusive, demeaning, harassing, humiliating, intimidating or threatening behavior that excludes a student from joining or participating in a student organization.

The Failure to Comply Standard has been updated with specific examples and to make clear that students are required to comply with the requests, directives and instructions of University officials acting in performance of their duties. Under this policy, students must identify themselves, including removing face masks or coverings for purposes of identification when asked by an authorized University official who is addressing law or policy violations and health or safety concerns.

The updated and renamed Misuse of University Properties policy more clearly defines misuse, including unauthorized access to athletics fields and construction sites and attending or participating in an event in University spaces that violates the policies governing that space.

The Destruction of Property Standard has been updated to broaden the definition of what applies under this policy to include tampering with University property.

There is more that was not included in this report that further shows Northwestern’s determination not to tolerate antisemitism. This includes denying tenure to a pro-Palestinian professor, Steven Thrasher, who had tried to prevent the campus police from pulling down a pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus. Thrasher also repeatedly posted on social media a grotesque comparison, that he thought fitting, between the Israelis and the Nazis. More on Steven Thrasher’s antisemitic comparison of Israelis to Nazis and his defense of Hamas’ atrocities on October 7, 2023, can be found here.

Thrasher’s social media accounts revealed several anti-Israel statements comparing Israel to Nazis and appearing to express support for the actions of Hamas during its terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Additionally, in a November 2023 blog post, Thrasher compared Gaza to a Nazi concentration camp, arguing that if Jews were able to break free from concentration camps in Nazi Germany, they would have killed “anyone they found partying”—a seeming reference to the Nova Music Festival, where hundreds of people were killed and dozens of others taken hostage on Oct. 7.

Thrasher, who earned his doctoral degree in 2019 from New York University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, was denounced by university leadership for an address during the convocation ceremony when he expressed support for the BDS movement and voiced his support for the Students for Justice in Palestine, a group that has since been suspended on a number of campuses due to its organization of illegal protests and intimidation of and violence toward Jewish students.

Now the University has decided not to award Thrasher. The “scholar” who compared Israel to the Nazis and Gaza to a Nazi concentration camp has been denied tenure. He’ll appeal, claiming “freedom of speech.” But he’s not been denied his “freedom of speech.”And it is licit to judge him on the intelligence and truth of his utterings, and on both counts he’s been weighed and found wanting by the university. Tenure is a great privilege, granted ever more rarely, and there is no sign that Steven Thrasher is so outstanding a scholar and teacher that it would be folly to deny him. No, he reeks of mediocrity.

Northwestern, in the year since President Michael Schill testified before Congress, has managed to reduce antisemitic incidents by 88%. It has adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism. It has adopted clear guidelines for punishing those who destroy university property in their demonstrations. It has passed rules requiring students to remove masks when asked to do so by university officials, including the campus police. There will be no more students in ski masks getting away with destruction of university property, or harassing Jewish students or faculty. Northwestern has banned any encampments being constructed that have not received prior approval. Northwestern also has “launched an antisemitism training module that is mandatory for all students and adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.” And there is much more the university has done that deserves to be emulated.

Columbia, Harvard, Berkeley, Princeton, and so many other universities now trying to figure out how to deal with expressions of antisemitism on campus, listen up. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just study what Northwestern University has done, then — as the Good Book says — go and do likewise.