A new Anti-Defamation League report assessing how 135 U.S. colleges address antisemitism gave the University of Kansas a B — reduced because of a “level of hostile anti-Zionist student groups.”
The Chronicle thanks the Kansas Reflector (kansasreflector.com) for permission to republish this article.
A new Anti-Defamation League report assessing how 135 U.S. colleges address antisemitism gave the University of Kansas a B — reduced because of a “level of hostile anti-Zionist student groups.”
The reports analyzed how the universities responded to antisemitic acts and how university policies actively fight antisemitism — but some student groups and a professor at KU questioned the classification of “anti-Zionist student groups” as antisemitic.
While the majority of schools received a C or lower, nationally there was an improvement from last year’s report. The ADL, a Jewish anti-hate organization, surveyed 50 more schools in 2025 than in 2024 — including KU — and found that 36% of schools received an A or B in 2025 compared to 23.5% in 2024. The ADL found that 45% of previously graded schools improved, while 9% declined.
The antisemitic incidents were reported by Jewish students on campus and ranked on their level of concern. Jordan Kadosh, the regional director of ADL Heartland, said there’s a difference between criticism of Israel’s policies or response to war and opposing Israel’s right to exist.
“I think that you have to understand that a lot of this rhetoric that supports the elimination of the state of Israel relies on antisemitic tropes,” Kadosh said. “Denying the state of Israel’s right to exist and employing antisemitic tropes and antisemitic rhetoric in order to advocate for that position is where this falls into the antisemitism category.”
Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, co-director of KU Chabad, said he has had conversations with KU’s administration on how KU can be a safe campus for Jewish students.
“Many students, many organizations, and many individuals like to hide behind that claim,” Rabbi Tiechtel said. “They like to say, ‘We’re not antisemitic, we’re anti-Zionist.’ It’s very important to stress that many of the sentiments that have been expressed on campuses across the country and that have been expressed here at KU over the last year and a half have been antisemitic.”
The ADL’s 30-point grading system categorized university responses into three areas. The “Jewish life on campus” category was all positive, the “publicly disclosed administrative actions” category had some yellow flags and the “campus conduct and climate concerns” pinged “level of hostile anti-Zionist student groups” as a red flag.
KU Students for Justice in Palestine, a pro-Palestinian group, has organized multiple protests in Lawrence — including the encampment on KU’s campus last May.
KU Students for Justice in Palestine promoted the encampment as anti-Zionist — as an act against Israel’s occupation, not in hatred of Jewish people — while the ADL flagged it as antisemitic.
Rabbi Tiechtel said some of the rhetoric used in chants at the encampment, like “from the river to the sea” promoted hostility toward Jewish people.
Jessie Duke, executive director of the Ecumenical Campus Ministries, which helped plan and supply the encampments, said this isn’t a fair assessment.
“Antisemitism on college campuses is a serious concern that needs to be addressed. Calling criticism of the state of Israel ‘antisemitic’ denies Palestinians their humanity,” Duke said.
The university put a policy in place in February of 2024 prohibiting camping, meaning protesters are not allowed to stay past 10 p.m. When protesters in May stayed past that deadline, three were arrested. Law enforcement confiscated protest signs, cases of water and tents from the site.
“The police did not have probable cause to arrest them, so it was not fair that they were arrested,” said Dan Curry, an attorney for the student protestors. “These three students should not have been arrested, and their charges were dropped.”
Duke says the university’s response was unfair.
“The crackdown on the encampments was clearly an attack on free speech,” Duke said. “The framing of students fighting against genocide as being ‘antisemitic’ is a diversion and a disingenuous starting point.”
Don Haider-Markel, a political science professor at KU, said that while he formerly used the ADL as a data source, he has become hesitant because of their interpretation of antisemitism. He referenced the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Palestinian terrorist group Hamas on Israel.
Haider-Markel’s concerns are part of a national debate on whether the ADL has lost credibility on antisemitism since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
“Beginning last year, they really began to classify incidents that are anti-Israel as or anti-Zionist as being antisemitic — equating them as one in the same,” Haider-Markel said. “I just don’t think that’s a fair way to characterize protests against the (Israel Defense Forces’) actions in Gaza.”
Jake Kurz, the director of ADL communications, said the ADL does not conflate anti-Israel protests with antisemitism — shown in their methodology.
“Legitimate political protest, support for Palestinian rights or expressions of opposition to Israeli policies are not included in the audit,” Kurz said. “For example, post-Oct. 7, ADL reviewed more than 1,800 anti-Israel protests, and about 25% were found to focus on legitimate criticism of Israel and were not included.”
After the report card was released, the ADL began its “Never is Now” summit in New York City to combat antisemitism. The ADL hosted Washington University in St. Louis chancellor Andrew Martin, who prohibited encampments on campus.
He said that time, place and manner restrictions were essential for encouraging equal free speech and to not disrupt education.
“The rules we have are not there to stifle opinion. In fact, we want opinions lifted up. But at the same time, we need to focus on the mission. Teaching needs to continue,” Martin said. “One of the issues we saw on many campuses last year is we have rules, but we had campus leaders who chose not to follow them.”
Duke, the executive director of the Ecumenical Campus Ministries, said encampments nationwide were held to a different standard than a typical protest.
“The university encampments, across the board, were met disproportionately with force and repression,” Duke said. “The students at KU and across the country put themselves on the line. What they wanted was to be heard. The conversation focusing on this ADL grading system demonstrates that the students were not heard.”
Rabbi Tiechtel said the KU protests were often disruptive and hateful. He said the university’s response to the encampment was fair.
“The KU administration is very supportive of the Jewish community, has been very responsive and has done a tremendous amount — both on the front lines and largely behind the scenes — ensuring that Jewish students feel safe and comfortable on campus since Oct. 7,” Rabbi Tiechtel said.
In recent months, he said, conversations have become less hostile, and that Jewish students have become more comfortable on campus.
“We are hoping that the positive trend we’ve seen in recent months will continue where we can have healthy dialogue without any hateful elements or intimidation,” Rabbi Tiechtel said. “We’re very proud to be affiliated with a university like this that creates an environment where everyone can feel comfortable.”