Political pressures are resulting in a range of initiatives that experts say substitute expertise with ideology

At the University of Washington, a group of faculty who felt the campus had grown too “anti-Israel” set out to build a new academic center to tackle what they view as antisemitism.

“Jewish students, faculty, and staff found themselves isolated, facing hostility, and witnessing the normalization of anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric,” the faculty wrote about the environment for Jews on campus after 7 October 2023. They pledged to offer a place for “open inquiry, intellectual rigor, and fearless debate”.