American Intellectual Antisemitism: The Anti-Jewish Movement Tearing Through Our Universities

Summary

In this firsthand exposé, a former Columbia Business School professor mounts a blistering indictment of how radical politics, ideological indoctrination, and institutional indifference have transformed campuses into incubators of anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli, and anti-American hatred.

American Intellectual Antisemitism tells the remarkable story of how one Columbia Business School professor helped sound the alarm on the rise of antisemitism and support for terrorism on America’s most elite campuses, emerging as one of the world’s most outspoken voices against anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli, and anti-American extremism.

In the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, Shai Davidai became an accidental activist. Almost overnight, he was organizing rallies, appearing on prime-time television, testifying before Congress, facing death threats, and being barred from teaching his award-winning course.

Beginning with the small vigil at Columbia that sparked his activism, Davidai chronicles how ideological extremism took root in elite institutions and how silence and fear fueled the most significant surge of antisemitism in North America since the Holocaust.

Blending a firsthand account with rigorous analysis, the book exposes the radical politics, ideological indoctrination, institutional indifference, leadership failures, and moral unraveling of American academia, revealing not only a crisis for Jews, but a broader warning about the fragility of democratic norms and the state of higher education.

Drawing on his years of conducting research on human behavior and experience teaching across multiple institutions of higher education, and guided by two principles—no hate, no lies—Davidai offers a bold and hopeful roadmap for confronting hate in an age of misinformation and moral confusion. Davidai’s message will leave readers with a deeper understanding of this moment and the clarity and courage to respond.