Newsletter | May 2026

Get the Facts. Get Israel

Whether it was launching crucial seminars like our recent conference confronting academic boycotts at Bar-Ilan University, hosting dynamic grassroots campus rallies, tablings in the campus quad, or bringing our community together for unforgettable regional alumni meetups from coast to coast, CAMERA on Campus was everywhere. Each photo represents a milestone where our Fellows and Coalition members stood up, spoke out, and reclaimed the narrative for Israel.

Adam Katz is a 2025-2026 CAMERA Fellow studying Political Science and History at the University of Manitoba in Canada.

A View From Campus: Universities Are Failing to Protect Debate While Claiming to Defend It

Universities are meant to be spaces where ideas are debated and challenged, but they are also institutions that set the rules for how students participate.

That authority comes with responsibility — but in recent years, administrators have applied their standards unevenly, particularly when protests around Israel and the Palestinians turn disruptive.

Lily Karofsky is a fourth-year Communications and Journalism major at UC Santa Barbara, and a 2025-2026 CAMERA fellow.

Antisemitism Isn’t Hiding— It’s Evolving on UC Campuses

As this school year comes to a close, it’s clear that antisemitic incidents across University of California campuses are not following suit, but escalating. From protests against former hostages to promoting suicide bombers, and targeting Jewish students online, antisemitism is alive and well, as it has been for years. Regardless of the different faces antisemitism wears, these are not isolated incidents. They point to a larger, more uncomfortable truth that antisemitism is not a relic of the past, but rather is adapting to the present.

Jacob Vetstein is a 2025-2026 CAMERA on Campus Fellow and a senior at Clark University studying political science.

What Being a Zionist Student Leader at Clark University Has Taught Me

During my four years as a student at Clark University, I have witnessed numerous episodes of blatant hostility and hatred towards Israel, both inside and outside of the classroom. In response, my fellow Zionist students and I used our voices to combat this rhetoric, yet we found ourselves to be standing alone. This experience has shown me that being an active Zionist student leader has essentially functioned as a substitute for institutional responsibility, stepping in to challenge misinformation and misconduct in spaces where faculty and administrators either cannot or will not intervene.

Jasmin Mojrenfeld Polite is a Jewish student at City St George’s, University of London and a 2025-26 CAMERA Fellow.

Campus extremism – is it truly political activism?

Now that the Israel–Palestine conflict is no longer the main concern on university campuses, and Jewish students feel less defensive compared to the last couple of years, one would think that everything should be running smoothly. However, a recent incident caught my attention and made me think of it as part of a broader issue: young individuals struggling with mental health and loneliness.

Elijah Wiesel is a student at Yale University and a 2025-2026 CAMERA Fellow.

The New Face of Ancient Accusations

For as long as the Jewish Diaspora has existed, the image projected onto the Jew has adapted itself to whatever a society abhors most. In medieval Europe, Jews were accused of poisoning wells and spreading the Black Plague. Christian authorities branded them “Christ-killers.” In Nazi Germany, Jews were labeled as “race polluters,” corrupters of blood and nation. In the Soviet Union, they were condemned as capitalist parasites and imperialist conspirators. The accusation changes with history, but the pattern remains remarkably consistent: Jews become the symbolic embodiment of a society’s deepest anxieties and insecurities.

Alena Rakitina is a 2025-2026 CAMERA Fellow studying at the University of Exeter

The New Normal for Jewish Students: Security Checks and Police Presence

In February 2026, a university screening at King’s College London required an astonishing level of security: 30 police officers and 15 professional security personnel for 20 students and five members of the university’s staff.

The reason? A 47-minute film of raw footage from the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack was screened, showing what actually happened that day.

An earlier attempt by the local student Israel Society to hold the screening had been abandoned entirely because the university didn’t grant permission on security grounds.

Amichai Greenberg is a student at Yeshiva University and a 2025-2026 CAMERA fellow.

Excusing Iran: How Antisemitism Inhibits Moral Clarity on Campus

In the weeks following the outbreak of the war between the US-Israel alliance and Iran, professors and student groups around the country have painted the Iranian regime as a force of anti-colonial resistance rather than as one of the prime instigators of global terrorism and regional destabilization. When professors use their positions of influence in academia to advance propaganda for the Islamic Regime, students have a responsibility to evaluate what they hear on campus.

Destiny Lugo is a 2025-2026 CAMERA Fellow at Oral Roberts University.

At California Universities, Students Rally to Support Terrorists and Criticize Victims

Universities are supposed to expose students to difficult perspectives, not shield them from uncomfortable ones. But on many campuses, Jewish and Israeli voices are increasingly treated not as viewpoints to engage with, but as problems to manage or condemn.

Few recent incidents captured that shift more clearly than the reaction to a former Israeli hostage speaking at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Lucas Shugarman is a 2025-2026 CAMERA Fellow at the University of Missouri.

The Free Speech Victimhood Paradox

Free speech is the most important component of democracy and an unalienable right here in the United States. Though, freedom of speech does not equate to freedom of consequence.

Throughout the anti-Israel crowd, there’s this fervent and manipulative victimhood complex about “free speech” and “censorship, as commentators with massive platforms bemoan that their speech rights are under attack the second anyone criticizes them, all while their viewership and influence continue to grow.

Kayla Rubin is a student of the Fashion Institute of Technology and a 2025-2026 CAMERA Fellow.

The New School’s Fight Over Hillel

On many college campuses, Jewish student spaces have increasingly become targets for ideological confrontation when associated with Israel. The issue is no longer just political disagreement over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but a growing expectation that Jewish students must distance themselves from mainstream Jewish organizations in order to comfortably participate in campus life. The recent controversy surrounding Hillel at The New School is a clear example of this trend and raises a larger question: when does “criticism of Israel” begin to undermine Jewish communal life itself?

Support Students!

Your support is vital to the success of these efforts. Together, we can continue building a stronger and more informed community, one that refuses to allow prejudice or ignorance to dominate the narrative.