A poll shows that the vast majority of Jewish Americans say they are concerned about anti-Semitism on college campuses but disagree with President Trump’s approach to combating it.
According to a poll conducted by Ipsos on Tuesday with social scientists at UC Berkeley and University of Rochester, American Jews are nearly 3-1 saying that Trump is using anti-Semitism as an “excusation” for “punishment” for university campuses.
Bruce Fuller, a sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley, co-authored the survey, saying he was somewhat surprised that 72% of Jewish Americans believed Trump used anti-Semitism as an “excusation” to punish universities. He said a survey in April raised a similar question, showing a lower percentage of American Jews with this view.
“It seems that the Jewish community is skeptical and critical of anti-Semitism as a fundamental principle,” Fuller said.
Since taking office, Trump has been planning to force elite universities to abide by his agenda.
The president accused the university of failing to address what is known as anti-Semitism on campus, aiming at several conceited institutions – Harvard and Columbia, which included massive penalties, focused primarily on cuts in federal research grants. Overall, billions of dollars in funds are threatened or withdrawn. At UCLA, he is seeking to overhaul campus practices to recruit, enroll, athletics, scholarships, discrimination, and gender identity.
The Justice Department published a discovery in July that UCLA violated the civil rights of Jews and Israeli students during its pro-Palestinian campus camp in spring 2024. Top UC leaders are in talks with the Trump administration, which has proposed a settlement that includes a fine of nearly $1.2 billion.
A new poll co-authored by James Druckman, a professor of political science at the University of Rochester, surveyed 1,166 adults who identify as Jewish. Participants spanned Jewish religious denominations, including members of the Orthodox, conservative and reform movement; they also included “non-affiliated” Jews.
The survey broke the answers to certain questions by each different category of participants. On the issue of “excuses,” polls show that 50% of the conservative/orthodox category believe that the Trump administration is using anti-Semitism as an excuse to punish colleges, while 79% of the reform category are in this way, and 78% of the non-kinship relationships.
The poll also said that the majority of Jews (58%) did not support Israel’s war in Gaza. 38% of conservative and Orthodox Jews opposed or strongly opposed the war in the territory. This is the case in 58% of the reform category, while 57% of the non-attached people.
Fuller said the investigation was conducted from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8 and costs $31,000 and is partly funded by private donors.
Since April, the Trump administration has increased pressure on institutions including UCLA. In the spring, several Jewish students and professors at UCLA told the Times that they believe Trump is using anti-Semitism as Sougar to achieve his political goals and to exert influence on higher education, with some doubting his sincerity.
Last month, a large number of UCLA Jewish teachers signed a letter denouncing the Trump administration’s “misleading and punitive” demand for more than $1 billion fines.
Time worker Jaweed Kaleem contributed to the report.
