The school adopted the mandatory training following Trump executive order on combating anti-Semitism
Hundreds of students at Northwestern University refused to watch an anti-Semitism training video that the school made mandatory amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on campus anti-Semitism.
At least 300 of Northwestern’s 22,000 students boycotted the training, leading the university to bar them from registering for fall classes, the Forward reported. Northwestern, which also requires students to watch anti-bias training on Muslims, told students in a March email that the new anti-Semitism training “will adhere to federal policy,” including Trump’s January executive order “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism.”
The 17-minute video, which the Jewish United Fund produced specifically for Northwestern, aims to teach students about “who Jews are, how Jews understand themselves, and how anti-Semitism has morphed throughout time.” The training defines anti-Zionism, which has gained popularity among radical anti-Israel protesters, as “the opposition to the Jewish right of self-determination,” warning that anti-Zionism “takes many forms, most of which are anti-Semitic because they work against Jewish human rights.”
The video also presents four quotes from anti-Israel activists alongside four from Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. “The fact that you can’t tell the difference is terrifying,” the narrator says. “The thing is, to most Jewish people, they feel the same because they are the same.”
According to Northwestern, “students are not required to agree with the training modules,” only to watch them, the Forward reported.
Northwestern has seen a slew of anti-Semitic incidents. During Passover in April, anti-Semitic vandals at Northwestern used red paint to write “Death to Israel” and drew Hamas triangles on Kresge Centennial Hall, a campus building that houses the school’s Holocaust center, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Earlier that month, Northwestern’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine hosted an anarchist training session featuring two pamphlets that included propaganda from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group.
The school’s terrorist ties don’t end there. A Northwestern journalism professor used to run an organization that funneled money to Hamas, the Free Beacon reported earlier this month.
The Trump administration has frozen $790 million in federal funding to Northwestern and launched two separate civil rights investigations into the university over rampant anti-Semitism, with Northwestern president Michael Schill resigning earlier this month amid the scrutiny. Schill sparked significant backlash in spring 2024 over his decision to offer concessions to anti-Israel encampment organizers, including commitments to hire two Palestinian professors and offer full scholarships to five students from Gaza.
Harvard, Columbia, and other universities have also adopted training amid the Trump administration’s funding cuts. So far, the administration has secured a $221 million settlement with Columbia and a $50 million settlement with Brown University and revoked visas of foreign nationals linked to anti-Semitic activity.
