Responsible political leaders — from President Joe Biden to Gov. Kathy Hochul to Mayor Eric Adams — have rightly deplored the sudden spike in antisemitism, especially on college campuses.
Yet the crisis calls for more than sympathetic words and token gestures. America needs a serious crackdown on this festering cancer.
On Tuesday, FBI director Christopher Wray testified before lawmakers that antisemitic threats are “reaching historic levels.”
He noted Jews represent just 2.4% of the population yet “account for something like 60% of all religious-faith hate crimes.”
Anti-Jewish protests have broken out in major cities, and Jewish students at have endured outright physical threats at places like Cornell and Cooper Union.
At Columbia, more than 100 professors defended students who celebrated Hamas’ massacre of Jews.
Biden vowed to “combat antisemitism at every single turn.”
At Cornell, Hochul blasted a professor who praised Hamas’ butchery as “exhilarating.”
If you engage in hate crimes, she added, “you will be caught and you will be prosecuted.”
Adams, too, insists the city “has no room” for antisemitism and laudably ripped an antisemitic protest promoted by Democratic Socialists as “disgusting.”
They’re announcing steps to address the sickness — but their measures don’t go nearly far enough.
On Monday, for instance, Team Biden announced that officials will meet with Jewish organizations and hold talks with Jewish students.
Uh, hello?
It isn’t Jewish students causing the problem.
Hochul is making $50 million in grants available for law enforcement to fight hate crimes and will “convene community circles to bring New Yorkers together.”
Spare us the circles; how about imposing real consequences for institutions that not only tolerate the targeting of Jews but foster it?
Public and private universities in just New York alone, as The Post reports, get billions from the state and federal government — directly and via grants and tuition assistance.
How about cutting back on funding as antisemitism rises on campus?
Yes, respect free-speech rights.
But forcing kids to endure real threats, such as at those at Cornell and Cooper Union, is wholly unacceptable.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered state universities to deactivate chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine for supporting terrorism in violation of state laws.
Makes sense.
The heart of the problem: leftist, antisemitic professors who fuel such hatred among students.
Profs certainly deserve academic freedom, but how do such people get hired at universities in the first place?
To fix that, schools need to make changes at the top — install new presidents, deans and even board members who set the tone.
Political leaders — and alumni donors — have great sway over these institutions’ leaders.
If they truly want to stamp out this scourge, they’ve got plenty of tools at their disposal.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
