President Isaac Herzog sent an urgent letter to the presidents of 700 universities and colleges in the US on Tuesday, demanding that they take action against rising antisemitism on campuses across the country.
"The events on the campuses are not a debate, but a denigration of the university institution and a desecration of its basic principles. How is it possible that those who support, encourage, explain, and glorify the atrocities of Hamas have a place in any academic institution or in general - in the cultural and enlightened world?"
"We all know that evil ideologies that are directed towards Jews always signal a much wider intellectual collapse. The events we are witnessing are not a threat just to Jewish students, but to the very healthy existence of the institutions essential to our human culture, in other words - it is a threat to humanity itself."
"Each of the higher education institutions can and should lead the fight against the scourge of antisemitism, among other things by establishing a task force that will develop a campus and institutional work plan and be an important anchor for the entire community."