The Trump Effect: Reflections on how academic life has improved for a Jewish professor

On October 10, 2023 — conscionable 3 days aft Hamas perpetrated the largest bloodletting of Jews since the Holocaust — I was preparing to thatch my evening postgraduate seminar astatine Northeastern University connected coercion and counterterrorism, erstwhile a alien accosted maine successful the hallway by my office. 

Wearing a keffiyeh, helium pressed a flier into my manus to be a "vigil" successful Cambridge advocating Palestinian resistance. I softly turned around, enactment the flier successful my bureau and headed disconnected to class, wherever I spotted the aforesaid intifada-enthusiast seated among my students. 

I politely asked him to permission truthful I could commencement teaching astir planetary information arsenic I had astatine Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins and Northeastern for the past decade. The people lone met erstwhile a week, and I was anxious to commence my acquisition plan. But the intruder refused to leave, cutting into people time. He told maine that he’s a pupil astatine the assemblage and needed to guarantee that my course, successful which helium was not enrolled, aligned with his anti-Israel views. After astir 15 minutes of unsuccessfully negotiating with him to leave, helium started pacing astir the classroom, giving a diatribe against Israel portion encouraging the shocked students enrolled successful the people to locomotion retired of my people to be the anti-Israel rally crossed municipality successful Cambridge.

THE FORGOTTEN AMERICANS OF HAMAS' TERRORIST MASSACRE ON OCTOBER 7TH

Anti-Israel protesters astatine Northeastern University. (Photo by Anibal Martel/Anadolu via Getty Images)

I was not the lone Jewish module subordinate whom the anti-Israel activistic targeted to restrict world state astatine my school. Significantly, neither of america was teaching astir thing related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; my module that time happened to beryllium connected the taxable of right-wing extremism. No, my workfellow and I were targeted for being Jewish faculty. 

Both of america submitted abstracted ceremonial complaints to the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution (OSCCR). But OSCCR refused to appraise maine astir the result of my complaint. Later successful the term, I discovered that my assemblage intelligibly did not subject the pupil capable due to the fact that my telephone blew up with alerts from friends that the activistic was getting escorted retired of the graduation ceremonial by constabulary for making a immense country with fake humor to the fearfulness of each the graduating students and their families.

When I thrust to school, I often springiness my parent a call. And she often asks maine whether there’s immoderate much madness connected campus. What she means to inquire is whether determination are immoderate much disruptions from extremist students connected campus. But this is simply a communal misperception astir the hierarchy of problems Jewish module person faced successful American higher education, which precede the October 7 violent massacre and resultant "global intifada" connected assemblage campuses nationwide. 

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Anti-Israel protesters successful downtown Boston stitchery successful enactment of the campy successful Harvard Yard for the Israeli onslaught connected Gaza, connected April 25, 2024 astatine Northeastern University successful Boston. (Photo by Anibal Martel/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Such incidents are understandably highly salient successful the news. The bigger occupation for me, though, was not the intifada-supporting student's theatrics, but that the assemblage medication did not get my back. The medication ne'er checked successful with maine oregon my students aft the people was taken hostage by an extremist; the assemblage refused to proviso immoderate information to my classes adjacent aft being targeted; and the assemblage failed to sufficiently code the known pupil extremist, starring to embarrassment erstwhile the spoiled graduation ceremonial became a nationalist quality story.

This is however universities crossed the state person dealt with the field intifadas against Jewish students and module — by doing adjacent to nothing.

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President Donald Trump speaks during a FIFA task unit gathering successful the East Room of the White House connected Tuesday, May 6, 2025 successful Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

That is until Donald Trump was re-elected arsenic president. Ever since, there’s been a palpable consciousness that antisemitism and associated extremism volition beryllium punished if not from the universities, past by the government. Since his re-election, determination person been nary intifada-intruders successful my classroom. And I cognize that if determination are, they volition beryllium handled much earnestly by the administration. And for the archetypal clip successful my decennary astatine Northeastern arsenic a professor, my important work to Jewish students arsenic the module advisor to Chabad and Hillel person been decently counted successful the yearly merit reviews for wage and promotion.

These affirmative changes, I believe, are owed to the Trump effect.

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