How the U.S. Government Can END Campus Anti-Semitism | Tikvah Podcast

In one of the most significant civil rights interventions in the history of American higher education, the Trump administration recently reached a landmark $200 million settlement with Columbia University—aimed squarely at combating campus anti-Semitism.

The deal is leading many observers to ask: what legal tools can the federal government use to protect Jewish students? Where does free speech end and civil rights enforcement begin? And can elite universities like Harvard, Penn, and Columbia be held accountable for turning a blind eye to anti-Jewish discrimination?

Last December, just before the new administration took office, Mosaic published an important essay by the lawyer Tal Fortgang, asking how the incoming Trump team could vigorously protect Jewish civil rights. Later that month, Tal joined the legal scholar David E. Bernstein of George Mason University for a conversation about his essay, which was originally made exclusively available to Mosaic subscribers.

We are pleased to make that original conversation available to our wider audience as we explore the policy playbook now being implemented by the White House—months after Fortgang first proposed these ideas in Mosaic. Together, they outline what it would take to make America’s campuses safe—and fair—for Jews again.

You can read Fortgang's essay here: https://ideas.tikvah.org/mosaic/essay...

00:00 Introduction
06:31 The Anti-Zionism Trap and National Origin Discrimination
07:57 Anti-Zionist Jews and the Argument of Safety
16:43 The Case for Civil-Rights Litigation
20:40 What Jewish Civil Rights Actually Are
27:15 What Jewish Advocates Are Getting Wrong
38:25 Can the Law Protect Jews Without Silencing Others?
45:41 Faculty Support of BDS and Civil Rights Compliance
49:55 Three Federal Steps to Fight Campus Anti-Semitism
54:40 Foreign Students, Terror Support, and Immigration Enforcement
59:55 Rethinking Jewish Power on Campus
1:08:30 What Can I Do? The Civil Rights Tools We Already Have

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