US universities’ academic staff and administration are the cause of antisemitism on American campuses, as they are teaching their students that Israel must be annihilated, Yad Vashem’s chairperson, Dani Dayan, told the Knesset Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Affairs Committee on Tuesday.
The “root cause” of antisemitism on university campuses in the US is the attempt by lecturers and administrators to “implant in students’ mind the need to act toward the elimination of the State of Israel,” Dayan said during the meeting.
His comments came amid a special panel on “the impact of the war on the rise in antisemitism toward Jewish students in the Diaspora” in honor of Students’ Day.
According to Dayan, “Things must be called what they are – this is a blatant antisemitic phenomenon within academia. The presidents of institutions in the United States are not behaving like leaders. Therefore, nothing will change. Antisemitic rhetoric must be defined as such and placed outside the bounds of legitimate discourse.”
Dayan, who is also the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) chair for the Israeli Presidency in 2025, added that in this capacity, he was applying pressure on IHRA member states.
“Calls in academia for the destruction of Israel should be strictly prohibited. The IHRA has the means to work with university leadership to combat voices on campuses calling to destroy the State of Israel,” he said.
Committee chair MK Gilad Kariv (the Democrats) said that the meeting provided an opportunity to “reflect on the price the younger generation pays during wartime.”
“Antisemitic incidents on US campuses harm Jewish and Israeli students’ studying at these institutions personal sense of security. In many cases, it seems that university administrations are not responding adequately to these incidents,” Kariv said.
“These are not spontaneous gatherings but rather organized efforts rooted in social media, backed by major organizations that fund the spread of hatred. The committee is working directly with all relevant government bodies to try and prevent and overcome antisemitic events on campuses,” he continued.
IHRA definition of antisemitism
The committee’s chair added, “In the previous Knesset, the Israeli legislature adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism, and efforts should be made to encourage more entities around the world to adopt this definition.”
Antisemitism, according to the IHRA’s definition, “is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property and toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
The IHRA lists as possible “manifestations” of antisemitism “the targeting of the State of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity.” It clarifies that “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.”
It provides examples for this, such as denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor, applying double standards by requiring the state a standard of behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic country, and holding Jews collectively responsible for actions related to the Jewish state.
Per data presented to the committee by Amit Efrati, the deputy director-general of the Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry, there has been a 477% increase in antisemitic incidents across the US in the past year. In Europe, the number of antisemitic events is six times higher than in a typical year.
A representative of the National Union of Israeli Students said that only about 20% of antisemitic incidents on campuses worldwide are reported to the authorities, and a representative of the Anti-Defamation League added that 66% of Jewish students on campuses reported feeling unsafe and claimed that universities are unable to protect them.