A new report from the advocacy group Alums for Campus Fairness (ACF) has identified the 10 U.S. college campuses it considers most concerning for Jewish students, alongside 10 it names as the most supportive, in its 2025-26 Campus Climate Brief.
ACF evaluated schools using five criteria: recorded incidents, institutional response to antisemitism, anti-Israel organizing activity, the state of Jewish campus life, and the broader legal and structural environment. In total, the report covers 14 campuses flagged as concerning and 17 described as strong, spanning 17 states.
“The schools that get it right understand their role and understand that they have an obligation to support all students, including Jewish students and Zionist students,” ACF Executive Director Avi Gordon said. “And I think those schools are flourishing, they’re welcoming, and it’s a place that’s desirable for certainly within the Jewish and pro-Israel community.”
The most concerning campuses
ACF’s list of the 10 most concerning campuses includes Middlebury College, The New School, DePaul University, Smith College, Sarah Lawrence College, San Francisco State University, University of Texas at Dallas, University of California, Berkeley, Oberlin College and George Mason University. The City University of New York System, University of Washington, Occidental College and Pitzer College received “honorable mentions” in the same category.
At Middlebury, ACF pointed to the campus Hillel chapter renaming itself “The Jewish Association at Middlebury” following what the report described as an attempted disaffiliation from Hillel International. “Whatever the internal politics, the fact that national Hillel affiliation is contested at all reflects how thoroughly anti-Zionist sentiment has penetrated the campus’s Jewish institutional life,” the report states.
The report says the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at The New School advertised a “Vigil for Martyr Yahya Sinwar,” referring to the deceased Hamas leader, and continued promoting the event even after Meta removed the original post.
At UC Berkeley, the report cites “wanted” posters targeting Jewish UC regents that appeared in September 2025, followed by graffiti reading “Kill all Zionists” spray-painted in graduate housing in November 2025. The Justice Department sued UC Berkeley in February 2026 over what it alleged was “an antisemitic hostile work environment,” according to the report.
ACF also flagged San Francisco State University over what it called a broader anti-Zionist culture, citing the hosting of Mahmoud Khalil by the university’s Race and Resistance Studies department and the General Union of Palestine Students. SFSU disputed that characterization. Director of Communications Bobby King told Fox News Digital that “SFSU has made combatting antisemitism a University priority,” pointing to a 2022 partnership between the university, SF Hillel, Hillel International and the Academic Engagement Network to implement an antisemitism-focused program. Roger Feigelson, executive director of the San Francisco Hillel serving SFSU, was quoted in a recent JWeekly article calling the university “a role model for how to fight antisemitism on college campuses.”
Gordon said leadership at schools on the concerning list needs to “address the Jewish community and need to work together with the Jewish community.”
The most supportive campuses
ACF’s list of the 10 strongest campuses for Jewish students includes Tulane University, University of Florida, Vanderbilt University, University of Miami, Brandeis University, Indiana University, Arizona State University, Binghamton University, Dartmouth College and University of Southern California. Washington University in St. Louis, Emory University, University of Georgia, University of Central Florida, Boston University, University of Arizona and Yeshiva University received honorable mentions.
USC, in a statement, said the ranking reflected “the concrete steps USC has taken to support our Jewish community,” adding: “At USC, we want every student — of every background, faith, and perspective — to know they are welcome and valued. We are proud that Alums for Campus Fairness has ranked USC among the top ten campuses for Jewish students, and the only California university on the list.”
Gordon, a Binghamton University graduate, praised his alma mater for maintaining weekly meetings between administrators and representatives from Hillel and Chabad. The report describes Binghamton as “the campus where BDS went backwards,” noting a boycott, divestment and sanctions resolution passed in April 2024 was rescinded that October, and the Student Assembly Congress posted a statement in January 2025 condemning divestment from Israel.
Gordon also highlighted Vanderbilt University, which recorded no antisemitic incidents in the 2025-26 academic year and, according to the report, moved quickly in February 2026 after a mathematics lecturer was reported for embedding anti-Israel content in course materials.
A “crossing point”
Gordon said ACF is not seeking censorship and that free exchange of ideas remains an important part of campus life, but that problems arise when Jewish students face intimidation, vandalism or bigotry.
“I think Jewish life on campus is at a kind of crossing point. I think that Jewish students are becoming way more acutely aware of what the risks are when deciding to apply to a university and what risks they’re willing to take or not,” Gordon said.
He added that schools “must understand kind of the reality of the students on the ground, the reality of potential students as well, and the role that alumni have to play in kind of sharing those views with the administration as well.”
Fox News Digital, which first reported on the ACF brief, said it reached out to all institutions named in the report for comment. Occidental College and the University of Central Florida declined to comment; other schools did not immediately respond.
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