Women at the forefront: Confronting antisemitism in American academia

As antisemitism intensifies on American campuses, prominent Jewish female professors and scientists are emerging as key figures in the fight against this resurgence. Their stories not only expose the gravity of the crisis but also illuminate pathways for resilience and action.

The Israeli National Security Council regularly issues travel advisories, ranging from “exercise increased caution” to “avoid all travel.” I believe it is time to introduce a different kind of advisory — a cultural one. Not to prevent travel, but to equip travelers with the resilience needed to confront the alarming surge of antisemitism worldwide.

This became strikingly clear to me after a recent lecture tour in the United States. Speaking with Jewish communities and Israeli-Americans, I was taken aback by the level of hostility toward Jews, Zionists, and Israel, particularly on university campuses.

For years, I have worked with North American Jewish communities and advocated against antisemitism. Yet seeing firsthand how deeply antisemitic rhetoric has infiltrated academia was eye-opening. Under the guise of anti-Zionism, age-old antisemitism is seeping into mainstream discourse, taking root among students and faculty alike.

One event reshaped my awareness. It was a meeting with two remarkable women, a mother and daughter — Prof. Vivien K. Burt and Prof. Kira Stein — both of whom have impressive résumés, both professionally and publicly. Burt, at 80, particularly touched my heart. She is a respected lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the prestigious UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles, California, one of the most esteemed research universities in the United States. She specialized in neuropsychiatry for years and earned significant renown in her field. She is also the founder and director of the “Women’s Life Center” at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital. Among her numerous publications, she authored the Clinical Guide to Women’s Mental Health. Burt has won numerous awards and honors and has been recognized by her peers as one of the best physicians in America.

Yet in the past year, students have petitioned and threatened to boycott her lectures, alleging that “being a Zionist is a micro-agression”. Unfortunately, some of these students were Jewish. Prof. Burt left academia in disappointment and returned to focus on her private practice. However, the insult was painful. It led her to research the issue in depth, and her findings were chilling — one was suspended and several have gone on leaves of absences due to antisemitic incidents and had become targets of disgraceful attacks from students and fellow faculty members.

Prof. Burt is not alone. Many faculty members and students at leading universities in the US — such as Columbia, Yale, and, of course, Berkeley, the birthplace of radicalism in America — face similar challenges. Her daughter, Prof. Stein, also faces difficulties. She serves as the chair of JFrg at UCLA (a community of faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and staff, both Jewish and non-Jewish, committed to supporting the Jewish community on campus). She has been suspended for almost half a year, due to objections to her campus activities and her stand against university authorities regarding antisemitism. Her efforts have included calling on the Jewish community in Los Angeles to pressure university representatives to take antisemitism more seriously and to enforce the law and ethical code related to helping Jews feel safe on campus.

Throughout my meeting with these remarkable women, I felt the depth of pain, sadness, and disappointment they experience from the professional and personal harm they have endured. “This is not the way a respected professor should end her career,” Prof. Burt told me tearfully, sharing that what hurt her most was that they thanked her, yet no one asked why she submitted her resignation letter. Not a single person — from the university staff or her colleagues. When I asked why it is specifically in medical schools that braver voices take responsibility, they both responded, “People are less worried about their livelihood. Many have private practices alongside other ventures, which contributes to job security — that might explain it.”

The list of Jewish professors and scientists with similar stories is long. Prof. Nir Hoftman, an anesthesiology expert also from UCLA, who has worked at the university for 22 years, recently shared in a meeting that since the protests began on campus, he has barely been able to focus on his research. Instead, he is engaged in a public struggle for survival as a Jew. He also assists Jewish students at this prestigious campus who find doors closed to them.

Recently, I also became aware of the work of Prof. Hedy Wald, a family medicine expert from Brown University in Rhode Island, who has researched hundreds of cases of antisemitism in the medical professions in the US, including data and statistics, documented personal experiences, and more. She published her remarkable findings in an article co-authored with Dr. Steven Roth from the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Illinois, featured in the prestigious American Journal of Medicine. The article asserts that since October 7^th, there has been a dramatic increase in antisemitic incidents in medical faculties over the past year, including statements and expressions that echo Nazi rhetoric. The article is a sharp, scathing indictment of the academic-medical establishment in the US for allowing harm to Jewish faculty members.

The use of Nazi rhetoric did not surprise Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of Global Social Action for the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, who is well-acquainted with the phenomenon. The center, one of the world’s leading organizations in combating antisemitism, promotes Holocaust education and its lessons to ensure that the younger generation understands the horrors of the Holocaust and recognizes the dangers of antisemitism.

The voices of Prof. Burt, Prof. Stein, and Prof. Wald are also important because they are female voices. As I show in my book Now It’s Your Turn (recently published in English as Iconic Jewish Women), women have always stood on the front lines of the fight against antisemitism and hatred of Jews — from the prophets Miriam and Deborah, Queen Esther, through poets such as Frida bat Rabbi Abraham ben Adiba and Grace Aguilar, to Anne Frank, Golda Meir, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Throughout both distant and recent history, women have voiced opposition to antisemitism and inspired others to take action against it.

This is also relevant today. Many studies, as well as years of experience, show that presenting diverse voices — especially those of well-known, inspiring, and beloved women — helps in addressing manifestations of antisemitism. Rabbi Cooper also believes in using familiar figures from a multicultural spectrum of affiliations and identities to tell our story.

Now is the time to enlist women from the past and present in the fight against antisemitism. It is particularly important to showcase the cultural, social, and geographical diversity of Israel, which is often distortedly perceived as a privileged, “white,” and forceful nation. Even the smallest effort can help — articles in the press, media appearances (especially in US media outlets), social media activity, public organization, spreading calls to action, publishing research, and more.

The time has come for the Israeli government to define the fight against antisemitism — including anti-Zionist and anti-Israeli aspects — as a central national goal, incorporate it into foreign policy, and collaborate with Jewish organizations, communities, and federations abroad in combating this dangerous phenomenon.

This should include amplifying the important and influential female voice.