Jewish Students Are Invited To Transfer To Brandeis University To Avoid Anti-Semitic Campuses

Brandeis University is extending its deadline for student transfer applications until May 31 in response to days of raging anti-Semitic protests on numerous campuses throughout the United States, adding that it is prepared to accept more than a usual number of applicants.

On April 22, Brandeis president Ronald D. Liebowitz wrote an open letter saying: “Jewish students are being targeted and attacked physically and verbally, preventing them from pursuing their studies and activities outside of class, just because they are Jewish or support Israel.” In contrast to institutions such as Columbia and Harvard, he avowed that Brandeis provides a campus “free of harassment and Jew-hatred.” Brandeis students are currently on spring break, coinciding with the observance of Passover.

Best-selling author and historian Edwin Black responded to the news saying, “These are academic refugees not unlike the ones we saw in Germany after Jewish students and professors were pressured out."

Brandeis is located near Boston and, according to its website, was created “by the American Jewish community at a time when Jews and other ethnic and racial minorities, and women, faced discrimination in higher education. Our visionary founders created a nonsectarian research university that welcomed talented faculty and students of all backgrounds and beliefs.”

According to Leibowitz, about one-third of Brandeis students are Jewish but have a range of opinions about the current war between Israel and Hamas. However, he vowed that the university will respond to hate speech which argues that Israel has no right to exist and that Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack was somehow legitimate.

In an email to students, Leibowitz wrote: “As a university founded in 1948 by the American Jewish community to counter antisemitism and quotas on Jewish enrollment in higher education, Brandeis has been committed to protecting the safety of all its students, and, in the current atmosphere, we are proud of the supports we have in place to allow Jewish students to thrive.” Liebowitz added, “Due to the current climate on many campuses around the world, we are now expanding the opportunity for students to seek the learning environment of our campus by extending the transfer application deadline to May 31.”

Shortly after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which saw 1,200 Israelis murdered, part of the student government failed to condemn the Hamas perpetrators. However, the student government overall reversed course. Less than a month after the attack, Brandeis became the first university to ban its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, noting that it “openly supports Hamas” — unlike other institutions which suspended the terrorist support group for merely technical offenses against protest policies.

“Students elsewhere should know we welcome all — Jews and students from every background — who seek an excellent undergraduate education and an environment striving to be free of harassment and Jew-hatred to apply,” said Liebowitz’s email.