Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan heard a “different tone” from heads of American universities during a recent visit to the United States, he shared with The Jerusalem Post this past week.
“I remember in November 2023, about six weeks after October 7, I began hearing reports about what was happening on Ivy League campuses in the US,” Dayan said. “When I arrived, what I witnessed truly shocked me. I returned to Israel completely appalled. It was unlike anything I had ever seen in those institutions – the calls for Israel’s elimination were explicit.”
Dayan added that in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 massacres, the protests weren’t about policies or military actions in Gaza. “It was about the very right of the State of Israel to exist. When I heard the presidents of the leading universities testify before Congress and say things like ‘the genocide of the Jews depends on context,’ I wasn’t even surprised. But this time, the tone is completely different.”
The problem goes beyond students protesting against Israel
In his trip, Dayan met with Prof. Linda Mills, president of New York University, and Claire Shipman, interim president of Columbia University. “For the first time, I felt a genuine sense of understanding. This is not just about protests or encampments – it is a moral issue, and they realize it needs to be confronted,” the Yad Vashem chairman said.
He emphasized that the problem goes beyond students protesting against Israel, and the safety of Jewish and Israeli students. “It’s embedded in the courses, the syllabi, the faculty. But I sensed a willingness, or at least an expression of willingness, to make changes.”
When asked whether this shift is due to political pressure, such as threats from the Trump administration to cut funding, or from internal moral reflection, Dayan responded: “I want to give them the credit and believe they reached these conclusions on their own.”
“I don’t think the main issue is the physical safety of Jewish students,” he said. “What I raised with the university presidents is the fact that this began at least a decade ago – brick by brick, article by article, book by book. Pseudo-academic theories using buzzwords like ‘ethno-nationalist’ and ‘settler-colonialist’ have taken root. These pseudo-intellectual and pseudo-scientific frameworks are calling for the delegitimization and ultimately the elimination of the State of Israel.”
Dayan said he quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his meetings, citing the civil rights leader’s words: “There is a special place in hell for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis.”
The central message Dayan repeated during these meetings was that change is essential – not only for the Jewish community but for the future of the universities themselves. He challenged them to consider whether they wanted to be remembered like some institutions in Nazi Germany that collaborated with extremist ideologies in the previous century.
“I also offered them practical ways to collaborate with Yad Vashem – not just advice but concrete partnerships, including exchanges of researchers and cooperation on Holocaust and antisemitism education,” he said.
Regarding what he expects from the universities, Dayan said: “Moral and academic leadership. I believe, for the first time, that they got the message. I believe their intentions are now serious. But again, I’m very, very cautiously optimistic. This will be a long process, but I believe it has begun.”