UMass Amherst requires academic group to drop policy excluding Israeli scholars
UMass Amherst ordered an academic group to abandon a boycott rule that excluded Israeli scholars, citing violations of the university’s nondiscrimination policy.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst has required an academic organization to drop a policy that would have effectively excluded Israeli scholars from participating in a campus conference this fall.
The controversy began when UMass partnered with the Coalition of Women in German (WiG) to host its annual academic conference in November. According to the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS), WiG had adopted a policy prohibiting anyone from using funding from “Israeli institutions”—including universities and cultural organizations—to attend its programs.
That rule meant that Israeli academics relying on standard institutional travel or research funds would have been barred from attending. The policy also extended to anyone using support from Israel’s International Science Relations Fund, which provides financial assistance for scholars to present research at international conferences.
After the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law notified UMass about the issue, the university reviewed the situation and determined that the WiG policy conflicted with its own nondiscrimination rules. UMass policy prohibits “unlawful discrimination…on the basis of … national origin” in any of its programs, events, or partnerships.
In response, the university required WiG to suspend its BDS-related funding restriction as a condition for hosting the event on campus. According to JNS, UMass officials made clear that the conference could not proceed under the terms of the group’s original policy.
The Brandeis Center argued that the WiG policy not only violated UMass’s campus standards but also potentially violated state and federal antidiscrimination laws, including the Massachusetts Equal Rights Act. National origin discrimination, the organization noted, is treated under U.S. law with the same level of scrutiny as racial or ethnic discrimination.
By requiring compliance with its nondiscrimination policy, UMass ensured that Israeli scholars could participate in the conference on equal terms with others. The decision comes at a time of heightened tensions surrounding antisemitism and anti-Israel activism on university campuses nationwide.
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Campus Reform previously reported that another Massachusetts university, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was sued by a researcher who was harassed and ultimately fired because of his Jewish and Israeli identity.
The lawsuit was filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law on behalf of the researcher, referred to as “John Doe,” and expanded on earlier claims that MIT has tolerated widespread anti-Jewish discrimination on campus.
According to the complaint, students and his supervising professor shunned him, used anti-Semitic slurs, and eventually pushed him out of the lab while administrators ignored his appeals for help.
Campus Reform has contacted UMass Amherst for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.