The War on Campus Jewry Has Nothing to Do with Gaza

by Shabbos Kestenbaum

June 8, 2026

JNS

Summary: Shabbos Kestenbaum writes about why campus antisemitism persisted long after the Gaza ceasefire took hold for JNS

The Trump administration sued the University of California last week, accusing UCLA of "deliberate indifferen[ce]" while Jewish students were blocked from buildings, pepper-sprayed and beaten during campus protests. UCLA is just one example of how Jewish students are being harassed, excluded and systematically separated from their own institutions.

The ceasefire in Gaza has been in effect since the fall of 2025. But if you believed, as university administrators long insisted, that campus antisemitism was a reaction to events in the Middle East, then the last academic year should have buried that theory for good.

The war in Gaza is no longer the excuse because it was never the cause.

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