A strong majority of Jewish Americans said they are concerned about antisemitism on college campuses but disagree with President Trump’s approach to combating it, a national poll showed.
By nearly 3 to 1, American Jews believe that Trump is using antisemitism as an “excuse” to “penalize and tax college campuses,” according to the poll released Tuesday by Ipsos in collaboration with social and political scientists at UC Berkeley and the University of Rochester.
Bruce Fuller, a sociologist at UC Berkeley who co-authored the survey, said he was somewhat surprised that 72% of Jewish Americans considered Trump’s use of antisemitism as an “excuse” to punish universities. He said a survey in April that asked a similar question showed a lower percentage of American Jews with this view.
“It appears that the Jewish community is growing even more skeptical and critical of deploying antisemitism as the rationale” for federal funding cuts to universities, Fuller said.
Since taking office, Trump has been intent on forcing elite universities to adhere to his agenda.
Accusing universities of failing to address alleged antisemitism on campus, the president has targeted several vaunted institutions — Harvard University and Columbia University among them — with massive penalties largely centered on cuts to federal research grants. In all, billions of dollars in funding has been threatened or withheld. At UCLA he is seeking to overhaul campus practices on hiring, admissions, sports, scholarships, discrimination and gender identity.
The Department of Justice issued a finding in July that UCLA violated the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli students during a spring 2024 pro-Palestinian campus encampment. Top UC leaders are negotiating with the Trump administration, which has proposed a settlement that includes a nearly $1.2-billion fine.
The new poll, co-authored by James Druckman, a University of Rochester political science professor, surveyed 1,166 adults who self-identified as Jewish. Participants spanned the spectrum of Jewish religious denominations, including members of the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform movements; they also included “nonaffiliated” Jews.
The survey broke down responses to some questions by each of the different categories of participants. On the “excuse” question, the polling showed that 50% in the Conservative/Orthodox category felt the Trump administration was using antisemitism as an excuse to penalize universities, whereas 79% in the Reform category felt this way and 78% in the nonaffiliated one.
The poll also said that a majority of Jews, 58%, do not support Israel’s war in Gaza. Thirty-eight percent of Conservative and Orthodox Jews disapproved or strongly disapproved of the war in the territory; 58% in the Reform category felt this way and 57% in the nonaffiliated one.
The survey, which was conducted Aug. 28 to Sept. 8 and cost $31,000, was partly funded by private donors, Fuller said.
Since April, the Trump administration has ratcheted up pressure on institutions including UCLA. In the spring, several Jewish students and professors at UCLA told The Times that they believed Trump was using antisemitism as a cudgel to achieve his political objectives and exert his influence over higher education, and some doubted his sincerity.
Last month, a large swath of UCLA’s Jewish faculty signed a letter denouncing the Trump administration’s “misguided and punitive” demand for the $1-billion-plus fine.
Times staff writer Jaweed Kaleem contributed to this report.
