Massachusetts AAUP Chapters Denounce Smear Campaign & Urge Boston University Leadership to “Live Its Values”
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November 7, 2025
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Read the Boston-Area AAUP Chapters’ Letter to BU President Melissa Gilliam
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BOSTON – As Trump and allies like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) continue to levy spurious accusations of antisemitism to vilify political opponents and erode core democratic norms, Concerned Jewish Faculty & Staff (CJFS) applauds Massachusetts AAUP Chapters for denouncing another baseless smear campaign targeting academics who endeavor to cultivate critical conversations about antisemitism. The seven chapters—Boston University, Brandeis, Tufts, Worcester Polytechnic, and the executive committees of the Harvard, MIT, and Northeastern chapters—wrote to BU president Melissa Gilliam on November 4.
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On November 13, 2025, the BU School of Social Work’s Equity & Inclusion Speaker Series will host a webinar titled “Antisemitism: What is it, What is it Not, and What to Do.” The AAUP chapters’ letter quotes the event description: “[a]ntisemitism is one of the oldest and most enduring forms of prejudice and hate, yet in this current historical moment, it is often misunderstood, minimized, or weaponized.” We are not surprised that the AAUP chapters, who have modeled how to fight authoritarianism, laud the webinar as “the precise sort of intellectual engagement we expect and need from our campuses—particularly as the federal government and organizations like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) continue to misuse the language of “antisemitism as a smokescreen” … to advance an authoritarian agenda to erode civil rights and academic freedom, and to penalize speech critical of Israeli policy and Zionism.”
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The AAUP chapters note that “external actors with no apparent relationship to Boston University have launched a pressure campaign that mischaracterizes the event, seeks to discredit the featured Jewish scholars, and demands that BU allow the ADL and allied organizations to vet all event materials. . . . We also note the rather obvious irony that these actors are weaponizing the language of antisemitism to delegitimize a conversation about the weaponization of antisemitism.”
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The letter concludes by “urg[ing] BU’s leadership to do more than quietly not fold. We urge BU’s leadership to also Live its Values by publicly denouncing this pressure campaign and to applaud the School of Social Work Equity and Inclusion Speakers Series and, specifically, this critical and timely event. Some might respond that in a moment of escalating repression, it is better for BU to lay low so as not to draw more attention. We disagree. Authoritarians feed on our silence. It is time for BU to raise its voice and model what real university leadership looks like.”