Founders Hall at Haverford College. Photo by Jackbauerinvc via Wikimedia Commons
‘The place I love has betrayed me’: Haverford professor speaks out on rising antisemitism
Hatred towards Jews is not limited to Ivy League campuses — even small, suburban liberal arts schools like Haverford College are experiencing pervasive antisemitism. However, the attacks on this campus, situated on the affluent Main Line, are targeted primarily towards Zionist Jews — those who believe in Israel’s right to exist as a country.
Haverford College President Wendy Raymond had an opportunity earlier this month to set the record straight at a congressional hearing in Washington D.C., but her performance was as abysmal as the former UPenn and Harvard presidents’ testimonies in 2023. Both Liz Magill (Penn) and Claudine Gay (Harvard) resigned as president from their Ivy League universities shortly after their feeble performances.
Thus far, there are no signs of Raymond resigning, either voluntarily or involuntarily; however the college atmosphere is contentious according to several sources.
Barak Mendelsohn is a tenured political science professor at Haverford and is the only Israeli faculty member with dual American citizenship. In an interview with Broad + Liberty, he cited “rampant antisemitism” that the administration fails to address or stop.
“Students started boycotting my classes when I joined the college in 2007,” Mendelsohn said. “But I did not realize Jewish students were impacted by antisemitism until after the massacre on October 7, 2023.”
The lone Israeli-American professor on campus has been outspoken about his views and concerns on X in order to raise awareness and support his Jewish students, who now come to him regularly with complaints of antisemitic behavior. He feels “sidelined and marginalized” as a result of speaking out about the issues on campus.
Mendelsohn describes a campus where Jewish students are afraid to attend Shabbat dinner at the Chabad House or wear a kippah, a traditional headcovering for men, for fear of being attacked. Some students are afraid to even visit the Chabad House, the Jewish community center just outside campus. He talked about “loyalty tests” where Jewish students are forced to publicly state their position on the state of Israel.
According to Mendelsohn, the so-called “good Jews” — those who reject Israel’s right to exist and wish genocide on half the Jews who reside in Israel — pass the loyalty test and are not attacked or bullied. However, “bad Jews” — the Zionists, those who support Israel’s right to exist, even if supporting a two-state solution — are subject to regular intimidation and hateful behavior.
Despite the fact that Haverford’s administration has not thoroughly investigated and subsequently meted consequences against antisemitic behaviors, Mendelsohn has been the subject of such actions. He reports being investigated for some posts on social media and was also summoned to discuss “bias reports” for his public statements. Notably, the “bias reports” were against supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah, and to the best of Mendelsohn’s knowledge, the administration failed to address that behavior or issue any type of disciplinary action.
The tenured professor feels trapped and believes he cannot go anywhere else to teach because he is now a “troublemaker” for speaking out publicly. “I am disappointed that the actions I need to take in order to support our Jewish students when the college fails to, are harming my career and reducing my chance of finding a less hostile environment.”
“The place [Haverford] I love has betrayed me,” Mendelsohn lamented.
Ironically, he describes himself as left-leaning. Despite serving in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), he said, “I do not defend Israel’s actions, but I refuse to argue about what must be given — Israel’s right to exist.”
While Mendelsohn does not believe he has other options for teaching in the United States, he said he also stays to help protect the students since other than him and a very small number of Jewish faculty and staff, no one is doing so.
The professor’s statements were confirmed by a Haverford Jewish student, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation from the college and other students.
The student gave several examples where some Jews are subjected to threatening comments, including “all Zionists deserve to die.”
The student said there are so many examples that it is hard to recall all the specifics and described Haverford College as “not a great experience for some Jews.”
The Jewish student stopped wearing a kippah in public for fear of being targeted.
The student also corroborated Mendelsohn’s claim that the administration fails to take disciplinary action against those students attacking Jews. There have been a number of instances, including taking down signs of Jewish prisoners and a brief encampment where students took over a building.
“The administration let it happen and eventually they shut the encampment down, but there were no consequences for the students who did it.”
Raymond was questioned multiple times at the congressional hearing about disciplinary action for students, and she never answered the question; instead, she kept referring to her notes and read verbatim from the paper.
The House Committee on Education and Workforce Chairman Tim Walberg (R-Michigan) denounced Raymond’s statements.
“Raymond’s testimony was littered with weak and empty condemnations of antisemitism,” wrote Walberg after the hearing. “Armed with a cheat sheet of prepared responses and prompts, such as ‘Remember body posture,’ Raymond provided evasive testimony and refused to discuss whether disciplinary measures were taken to counteract Haverford’s pervasive culture of antisemitism.”
Walberg was not the only one in attendance at the hearing who criticized Raymond’s performance. Shae Mercer, a non-Jewish Haverford student, wrote an opinion piece in the college student newspaper questioning the testimony.
“Raymond’s evasiveness to questions, inability to recount disciplinary actions taken, and her answering every question in a way that sounded like she was reading from a script (and she may have been) all contributed to an impression that Raymond and Haverford had the most to hide regarding antisemitism,” wrote Mercer days following the hearing. “I fear that Raymond’s performance has made Haverford look, on a national stage, like a safe haven for antisemitism.”
Immediately prior to the hearing, Blumie Gurevitz, the Rohr Center for Jewish Life Director at Haverford and Bryn Mawr wrote a letter to the editor entitled, “When Saying You’re Jewish Feels Like a Risk.”
“I’m not asking everyone to agree on Israel. I’m asking that we stop forcing Jewish students to check a part of their identity at the door in order to be seen as ‘the right kind of Jew,’” writes Gurevitz. “Because when you make acceptance conditional, it’s not inclusion—it’s erasure. And if you’ve never had to ask yourself whether it’s safe to mention your identity in a classroom or club meeting or lunch table conversation, then I invite you to sit with that for a moment.”
The interviews and recent articles paint a troubling picture for Zionists at Haverford College. While it may not be as bleak or threatening as nearby UPenn or Columbia, with only 1,500 students, Jewish students who believe Israel has a right to exist have nowhere to hide.
Mendelsohn said that most faculty have “no clue what is happening to Jewish students on campus.” This statement seems to be corroborated by the Haverford American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Chapter. The group issued a press release in advance of Raymond’s testimony claiming Haverford is “in the crosshairs of the GOP-led Congress.”
“Today, the chapter wishes to amplify a statement written by a diverse group of Jewish faculty, staff, and students on campus who ‘do not feel that our college is a hotbed of antisemitism’ as well as a statement contesting the allegation that Rabbi Rebecca Alpert’s October 23, 2024 talk at Haverford College was antisemitic.”
The press release invited recipients (including Broad + Liberty) to talk with Jewish professors and students; however, no one responded to an email request to interview a Jewish student about “the issues or lack thereof regarding antisemitism on campus.”
In addition to the AAUP ignoring the interview request, Haverford College failed to return a request for comment about antisemitism on campus.
Beth Ann Rosica resides in West Chester, has a Ph.D. in Education, and has dedicated her career to advocating on behalf of at-risk children and families. She covers education issues for Broad + Liberty. Contact her at barosica@broadandliberty.com.
I have no doubt that this is happening at colleges across the U.S. in some form. However I do not sse Ms. Rosica providing any solutions, instead of relying on Project Esther for more insidious reasons.
One can always count on Judah to make a negative comment on anything Ms. Rosica writes. Rosica is a phenomenal writer who provides a great deal of helpful information in her numerous diverse articles, many of which are in the field of education in which she is exceptionally knowledgeable. Those who have nothing positive to say (like Judah) should simply be ignored.
Those who complain about the lack of solutions should be ready with their solutions to offer. I think Judah should share with the commenting community the solutions he has that will solve the problem of antisemitism. The solutions need to be positive and permanent; the world has had enough of the Hitlerian and jihadis “solutions” (including the “no state” of Israel) to antisemitism.
I find campus left-wingers mostly obnoxious but I also saw the horse-mounted, riot-armored Texas Rangers rounding up demonstrators and it was ridiculous. Criticising Israel is, in fact, still legal in America. So is pointing out Jewish power, believe it or not.
I saw the video of the plainclothes federal goons surrounding that girl on the sidewalk and stuffing her girl into a car…and then later I read she wasn’t accused of any crime, simply of signing a letter to the Tufts Student Senate about financial divestment. The Trump administration is literally taking hit lists from Jewish activist groups. Tell me again which side is being intimidated on campus? Tell me again who the victims are?
I am absolutely tired of hearing about “anti-semitism” and complaints of intimidation from an ethnic group so singularly pushy, aggressive and selfish in using power and money to shield themselves from criticism and to get what they want. There is probably no cause that benefits from more power, money, media savvy and dedicated activist than Zionism and the suppression of its opponents. The allegation that maybe some Jewish student, somewhere, might have gotten his little had knocked off during a demonstration, and this somehow represents looming oppression, is absurd in light of overwhelming Jewish power in this country.
As for Israel…My challenge to you, fellow “conservative” commenters, is to forego Fox News for a while and instead pick up a book about Israel’s founding. Read about the terrorism, the crimes, the murder of British soldiers. Read about Irgun and Haganah and see how many leaders of those terror groups went on to become leaders of Israel. Read about the Nakba and mass population displacement. Then read about the modern settler movement and its Jewish supremacist outlook. Read about some of the people running Israel today in coalition with Netanyahu: Bezalel Smotritch, Itamar Ben-Gvir…these people are absolute fanatics. Why on earth are American gentiles supporting these people? The answer is deception and manipulation. Their moneyed friends in New York City have learned to play US public opinion like a violin.
This article by Rosica is a small part of that paid-for noise machine.
Sounds to me like a “soft touch” antisemitic screed. Before continuing, I want to state that in my opinion trading accusations of brutality is a false argument since there are enough brutal events done on both sides to fill several dump trucks. Also, we need to recognize the nation of Israel was form by the United Nations in the late 1940s (How ironical is this}? so we are not looking at a rogue state formed in the dark of the night. Since the reading of history seems to be necessary here, then to be unbiased you need to read various histories of the Ottoman Empire. Also, read the Balfor Declaration and the British Foreign Office Middle Eastern dispatches from 1900 to 1946. Keep in mind there were no countries of Syria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq until the end of WWI and the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, It is also useful to realize the countries listed were formed along Arab tribal affiliations and not by any kind of popular vote or plebiscite.
There’s a reason that even in the BEST election for the GOP getting the Jewish vote (2024), the VAST majority of Jews (66-79% depending on the poll) VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS. This article encapsulates the reason perfectly. Let me tell you that there’s nothing like being Jewish, with friends and family serving in the IDF, knowing people who were kidnapped by Hamas on 10/7 and then GETTING A SANCTIMONIOUS LECTURE on antisemitism by a party shill like Ms. Rosica who supports President “very fine people on both sides”. They want to lecture us about antisemitism while supporting a guy who couldn’t bring himself to disown endorsements from the likes of David Duke or Kanye West and pardoned EVEN THE WORST swastika waving, Hitler saluting thugs who savagely looted the capitol on 1/6. (Did Fox News “forget” to air that part of the footage or interview those participants?) Antisemitism is ABSOLUTELY a problem, I would know, but the way the far-right (including non-Jews who have never experienced it before) have tried to exploit it to push a partisan agenda and score cheap political points is truly sickening.