When Antizionism Becomes a Barrier to Learning: A Call for Equity on Campus

Universities have long been spaces where difficult ideas coexist,where students stretch beyond familiar narratives and where debate and critical inquiry are foundational. Yet over the past two years, especially since October 7, the climate on many campuses has shifted from engagement to ideological absolutism. This leaves little room for nuance, complexity, or even the basic safety and belonging of Jewish students.

First it was anti-Judaism, then antisemitism, and now it has taken the form of antizionism. What we are witnessing is a shape-shifting virus,a hostility that updates its language to appear socially acceptable or politically principled while continuing to target Jewish identity, history, and self-determination. On campus, this form of discrimination is especially insidious: it masquerades as critique but results in exclusion, silencing, and fear.

This modern expression is captured powerfully by my Our Stories Matter podcast co-host, Dr. Miri Bar Halpern, clinical psychologist, who describes a new manifestation of anti-Jew hate called Traumatic Invalidation.Traumatic Invalidation occurs when a community’s documented suffering, its grief, loss, and trauma is minimized, denied, justified, or erased. It is deeply destabilizing because it tells victims that their pain is either undeserving or unreal. For Jews today, Traumatic Invalidation shows up when atrocities committed against Israeli civilians on October 7 are dismissed, denied, or reframed as political inevitabilities. It emerges when Jewish safety concerns are minimized, mocked, or ignored.

As a faculty member at a school of social work where we are trained to stand in solidarity with marginalized groups, I see Traumatic Invalidation everywhere. It is present when students fear acknowledging their Jewish identity because it is politicized against them. It appears when peers refuse to believe the documented rapes and sexual assaults committed on October 7. And it becomes painfully personal when the trauma of an entire community is debated rather than recognized.

I have worked in the domestic violence and sexual assault field for more than 20 years, informed by my own lived experience. I cannot imagine Jewish and Israeli men and women feeling safe disclosing sexual assault today, when victims are so often dismissed, doubted, or delegitimized. This is Traumatic Invalidation at its clearest, and its consequences are profound.

The personal cost of speaking openly as a Jew and a Zionist in academia is real. When I told a colleague I identify as a Zionist, after she defended ‘From the River to the Sea’, she replied, ‘I do not know what to do with that.’ We never spoke again. That response was not neutrality; it reflected how even faculty who champion equity for others often struggle to see Jews as deserving of the same solidarity.

This isolation is intensified by a crucial fact: the majority of Jews identify as Zionists. When that identity is treated as dangerous, unacceptable, or fundamentally suspect, Jewish students and faculty retreat from view. How can anyone feel safe when a core part of who they are, their connection to Israel and to Jewish self-determination is framed as a political liability?

Despite this climate, I have found hope. Faculty and students across ten schools at the University of Southern California  joined together this year to launch the Kalaniyot Chapter within USC, the first chapter on the West Coast. It was created in direct response to academic boycotts of Israeli scholars, boycotts that violate academic freedom and target individuals based on nationality alone. Imagine if American scholars were boycotted globally simply because of President Trump’s policies. The outrage would be immediate and universal. Yet for Israelis, these boycotts have become normalized.

Kalaniyot offers a model for what higher education can and should be, a best practice for dismantling antizionism on college campuses nationwide. Its mission is grounded in values universities claim to honor:

• Respectful co-existence: Living, learning, and working together alongside disagreements,
• Mission focus: Focusing on the university mission of research, education, and entrepreneurship,
• Excellence: Focusing on academic accomplishments and academic entrepreneurship,
• Open collaboration: international open academic collaborations with leading institutions around the world.

Through this chapter, Jewish and Israeli students and faculty finally see what belonging can look like, spaces where their identity is not politicized, where intellectual curiosity is welcome, and where their trauma is not dismissed but acknowledged.

Universities cannot claim to champion equity while marginalizing Israeli scholars under the guise of political critique. They must:

• Affirm that Jewish identity, including Zionism is protected.
• Recognize Traumatic Invalidation as a modern form of anti Jew racism and educate faculty accordingly.
• Treat anti-Jew hate with the same urgency afforded to all other forms of hate.
• Create dialogue spaces where Israeli scholars can speak, teach, and collaborate without fear of boycotts, political litmus tests, or professional ostracism.

Finally, we cannot ignore the broader landscape. Hamas did not suddenly appear on October 7. Its influence in political networks, student movements, and academic discourse has been building for decades. Founded in 1987 out of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas established deep institutional roots across political structures, social movements, and civic organizations. When we see academic boycotts of Israeli scholars or when antizionist rhetoric dominates campus spaces, it reflects decades of ideological shaping. Universities must understand this history to effectively counter it.

Jewish and Israeli scholars deserve what every scholar deserves: safety, dignity, and the freedom to collaborate without fear or invalidation. When antizionism and Traumatic Invalidation become barriers to learning, it is not only a Jewish issue, it is a crisis for the mission and integrity of higher education itself.