AMCHA INITIATIVE: HOUSE PASSAGE OF ANTI-BOYCOTT BILL BRINGS CRITICAL ATTENTION TO THE DANGERS OF ACADEMIC BDS

Contact:
amcha@berlinrosen.com

Foster City, CA, September 3, 2026 – Following passage by the U.S. House of Representatives of the Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act, AMCHA Initiative cofounder and director Tammi Rossman-Benjamin issued the following statement:

“The House’s bipartisan passage of this bill brings long-overdue attention to the serious consequences of academic boycotts, which research shows not only incite antisemitism and hurt Jewish students, but also subvert the academic mission of the entire institution and harm everyone – including American students. Academic boycotts restrict educational opportunity, distort academic decision-making and inflame hostility toward students and faculty identified with the country or people being boycotted. 

“Faculty have every right to advocate for or against a boycott in their personal capacities. But a major and dangerous institutional line is crossed when academic authority or university resources are used to implement a political boycott.

“Protecting Jewish students from the effects of academic boycotts is critically important. But the principle at stake is even larger. Universities exist to expand access to knowledge, scholarship and educational opportunity, not to restrict them in service of a political cause. Preserving that principle protects Jewish students while safeguarding the integrity of higher education for everyone.”

For more than a decade, AMCHA has documented the consequences of academically driven political activism that fuels antisemitism on U.S. campuses. AMCHA’s research has found a strong relationship between faculty support for the academic boycott and antisemitic activity on campus, including a significantly greater likelihood of anti-Jewish aggression at schools with faculty academic-boycott supporters. AMCHA has also documented the broader institutional consequences of allowing a political boycott campaign to penetrate the academic domain. Such boycotts restrict scholarly collaboration and the free exchange of knowledge for American students and scholars on the basis of a political litmus test. When academic programs, resources or authority are used to implement a political boycott, the academy itself becomes a casualty.

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AMCHA Initiative is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to combating antisemitism at colleges and universities in the United States. The organization monitors more than 750 campuses for antisemitic activity, as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the U.S. government. AMCHA is not a pro-Israel advocacy organization, nor does it take a position on current or past Israeli government policies; criticism of Israel that does not meet the IHRA and U.S. government criteria is not considered antisemitic by the organization. AMCHA has recorded more than 12,000 antisemitic incidents on college campuses since 2015, which can be accessed through its Antisemitism Tracker.