Dr. Charles Asher Small, Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), testified last Thursday before the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) in a hearing titled “Antisemitic Disruptions on Campus: Ensuring Safe Learning Environments for All Students.”
The hearing, led by Chairman Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), marked a pivotal moment of bipartisan attention to the escalating threats faced by Jewish students in higher education.
Dr. Small’s testimony included details of ISGAP’s findings, showing that Texas A&M received over $1 billion from Qatar, Cornell nearly $10 billion, and Columbia University at least $7.17 million—none of which was fully disclosed to the US Department of Education, violating federal law. He also pointed to Qatari support for satellite campuses, like those in Doha’s “Education City,” where US university research intellectual property is contractually assigned to the Qatari government.
“Our research has also exposed the strategic use of third-party foundations, institutes, and businesses to conceal the identities of foreign donors,” Dr. Small said. “Universities fail to disclose the terms of foreign donations that may compromise academic independence and integrity. When foreign regimes use American universities to promote their ideologies, and those institutions accept this funding without transparency or accountability, we are complicit in undermining our democratic values.”
He called on lawmakers to enforce transparency laws for foreign donations, investigate universities receiving authoritarian funding, adopt the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, and fully enforce Title VI protections to safeguard Jewish students. Dr. Small also stressed the need for comprehensive programs to critically study contemporary antisemitism.
Dr. Small was joined by a panel of witnesses, including Carly Gammill, Director of Legal Policy at StandWithUs; Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Executive Vice President of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad); Rabbi David Saperstein, Director Emeritus of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; and Kenneth Stern, Director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate. Together, they presented compelling evidence of an increasingly hostile campus climate where Jewish students face harassment, intimidation, and exclusion for expressing their identity or supporting Israel.
In his testimony, Dr. Small presented findings from ISGAP’s “Follow the Money” initiative, which highlights a direct link between foreign authoritarian funding—particularly from Qatar—and the rise in antisemitism on U.S. college campuses. ISGAP’s analysis reveals that universities receiving funding from authoritarian regimes, including those from the Middle East, report 300% more antisemitic incidents than institutions that do not accept such funding.
Dr. Small explained that Qatari funding has skewed campus discussions, undermined academic freedom, and created environments where antisemitism is not only tolerated but sometimes encouraged: “ISGAP’s research has shown that donations from Qatar have significantly influenced antisemitic discourse and campus politics in US universities, while also promoting anti-democratic values within these educational institutions. Following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, these influences have raised serious security concerns with both domestic and global implications.”
2 comments:
WZO co-founder Simon (Simcha) Maximilian Südfeld (later name change to Max Nordau) was born in Pest, Hungary, then Austria. His father, Gabriel Südfeld, was a rabbi earning his livelihood as a Hebrew tutor. As an Orthodox Jew, Nordau attended a Jewish elementary school & earned a medical degree from University of Pest in 1872. He then traveled for 6 years & changed his name before going to Berlin in 1873. In 1878 he began to practice medicine in Budapest. In 1880 he went to Paris as correspondent for Neue Freie Presse.
Before university, he'd begun his literary career in Budapest as contributor & dramatic critic for Der Zwischenact. Subsequently, he was editorial writer & correspondent for several other newspapers. He was disciple of Darwinist Meshumod Cesare Lombroso.
Nordau was an example of a fully assimilated & acculturated European Jew. Despite being raised religious, Nordau was agnostic. He married a Christian woman of Danish origin. He felt affiliated to German culture, writing in an autobiography "When I reached age 15, I left the Jewish way of life & study of Torah ... Judaism remained a mere memory & since then I've always felt as a German & German only." Max Nordau was the father of painter Maxa Nordau (1897–1993). The bulk of her work consists of portraits, mostly vivid & colourful depictions of Arab women she met during visits to the Middle East. She was influenced by her father's Zionist views. She often exhibited very naturalistic paintings of nude female Yemenites & Palestinians she met & studied.
Koichi vOitzem Yadi
Nordau at the 1898 Zionist Congress, coined the term "muscular Judaism" (Muskeljudentum) as a descriptor of Jewish culture & religion which directed adherents to reach for moral & corporeal ideals which, through agility & strength, result in a stronger Jew to outshine the long-held stereotype of the weak Jew. He further explored the "muscle Jew" in a 1900 article of Jewish Gymnastics Journal.
Mad Max
When you write :
"Koichi vOitzem Yadi"
you forgot to write that the Satmar rebbe himself in his book called "Al Ha'Gilah" writes that Hashem had nothing to do with the 6 day war victory; he says it was the IDF superior military training! The rebbe himself states that it was the IDF ... exactly what the IDF said!
Post a Comment