Harvard, M.I.T. and Systemic Antisemitism

David French March 14, 2024 1 min read

David French
New York Times

Excerpt: This Monday, March 11, roughly 200 Jewish students and supporters marched through the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, and it was newsworthy that they were not attacked. Local news hailed that they were able to, as one headline noted, “successfully march without confrontation.”

I spent virtually my entire legal career defending free speech on campus, including the free speech of Muslim students and staff members. I’ve also walked through metal detectors at a tense and volatile Columbia University to defend the academic freedom of Jewish students challenging antisemitic statements made by university professors. And during those decades of litigation and my subsequent years in journalism, I have never seen such comprehensive abuse directed against a vulnerable campus minority group as I’ve seen directed at Jewish students and faculty since Hamas’s terror attack on Oct. 7.

Click here for link to full article

Leave a comment

Comments will be approved before showing up.


Also in National Free Speech News & Commentary

The New Chilling Effect: Too many institutions are teaching young people to stay quiet.
The New Chilling Effect: Too many institutions are teaching young people to stay quiet.

By Jacob Blane, Annabelle Garland, and Sam Gross July 23, 2026 1 min read

If you’re looking for a reason to despair over the state of American education, there are many places you could start. Something that deserves more attention is damage to free expression—not in the classroom but in the public sphere of high school: the realms of student newspapers, student government, and other aspects of everyday life. School is meant to prepare students for the real world, but too many institutions are training kids to be silent.

Read More
Extorted Compliance: A Threat to Institutional Autonomy, Academic Freedom, and Shared Governance
Extorted Compliance: A Threat to Institutional Autonomy, Academic Freedom, and Shared Governance

American Association of University Professors  July 23, 2026 1 min read

Higher education in the United States and the faculty members central to its mission are under unprecedented, destructive, and sustained attack, part of a larger assault on democratic governance, civil society, and knowledge itself. 

Read More
DOJ Takes Aim at UC San Diego Med School’s Use of Hardship in Admissions
DOJ Takes Aim at UC San Diego Med School’s Use of Hardship in Admissions

Katherine Knott July 23, 2026 1 min read

The University of California at San Diego’s medical school discriminated on the basis of race in admissions decisions over the course of three cycles, the Justice Department claimed this week. 

Read More