Yogi Berra, a Hall of Fame baseball player, was considered by many to be the greatest catcher of all time. Baseball aficionados can recite his lifetime batting average and inform you about his three Most Valuable Player awards and 10 World Series rings. The informed American will tell you that he was quoted by four American presidents and was a philosopher of the people.
Yogi was noted for aphorisms that expressed eternal wisdom. One of the most popular was “when you come to a fork in the road take it.” This “Yogism” is well suited to the current state of American and British universities. These halls of ivy, bastions of learning and refuges of tolerance, are indeed at a fork in the road.
The state of academia in 2025
One branch putatively leads to “academic freedom.” The second branch sprouts critical thinking, intellectual scholarship, and acceptance. These branches should not be mutually exclusive, but today, on many campuses, they are.
Throughout academia in 2025, the concept of academic freedom is being used to undermine the principle of tolerance. Instructors and pseudo-scholars have infiltrated many departments, often receiving tenure based on cronyism and the failure of departments to adhere to national standards for their disciplines. After receiving tenure, they are not interested in, or capable of, pursuing scholarship.
With an almost irrevocable lifetime job contract, they are free to activate their political agendas. They proselytize and incite young, gullible minds and do not allow critical debates in their classrooms.
As authority figures, these faculty members carry great weight. Under the umbrella of academic freedom, they often go unchallenged by university administrations who fear the wrath of the faculty.
Accusations of antisemitism
The recent flare-up of antisemitism in college classrooms and on college campuses is due to the confluence of contributing factors. Undoubtedly, the war between Hamas and Israel; and between Israel and fundamental Islamic actors such as Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran, was the immediate trigger. The status of the Palestinian people and the fact that they have been maintained as refugees for 75 years provides the fuel for campaigns that are marked by hatred and threats to anyone perceived to be a Zionist.
Educational material disseminated in UNRWA schools has vilified Jews and glorified those who kill Jews. Although pro-Palestinian activists would have us believe they are not antisemitic, the statement by Columbia University student Khymani James that “Zionists do not deserve to live” and “be grateful that I am not just going out and murdering Zionists” is quite clear. Zionism advocates for self-determination for Jews, and Israel is the only state of the Jews. Ipso facto, if you hate Zionists, you hate Jews.
Numerous antisemitic acts promulgated against individuals who are identifiable as Jewish by the way they dress are often accompanied by anti-Zionist epitaphs. The former lord mayor of Bradford, Khadim Hussain, referred to the six million Zionists killed by Hitler. Despite denials of antisemitism by Hussain, no interpretation is necessary; Hitler’s final solution only referred to Jews.
Columbia University professor of history Mahmood Mamdani, father of the current Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City, wrote in his book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: “Suicide bombing needs to be understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism.” He considers the suicide bomber a “category of soldier.”
The preceding characterizations of Jews and Muslims incite violence, and justify most acts that run contrary to Western values. In the woke world of academia, everything goes. I think Yogi Berra would disagree. Aside from his athletic prowess, he stood for human dignity and the resolution of differences by respectful debate.
Confusion associated with forks in the road is best addressed by education and leaders capable of showing the way. Many citizens in the United States are questioning whether the college education received is consistent with their basic values or worth the high debt their families must incur. Applications by Jewish students to elite institutions with poor records of preventing antisemitism have dropped precipitously.
In the long run, physically avoiding the strident antisemitism encountered on college campuses by going elsewhere does not address the challenges we face. The solution will occur when principled faculty members take dominion over their campuses, classrooms, and study halls, and reestablish them as centers of learning, critical debate, and tolerance.
As Yogi Berra famously said: “The game ain’t over till it’s over.” There is still much work to be done and the time to do it is now.
The writer is a distinguished emeritus professor of biochemistry and chemistry and former provost at the City University of New York. He lives in Rehovot. The opinions in this article are his own.