Federal Civil Rights Commission to White House and Universities: Zionism and Jewish Identity Are Not the Same Thing
October 1, 2026
BOSTON — In a report released on Monday, September 28, 2026, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) firmly rejected the legal theory of antisemitism that is driving recent lawsuits against universities, both by the White House and by partisan lawfare groups like the Deborah Project and the Brandeis Center. It also declined to endorse the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which similarly conflates Jewish identity with support for Israel.
As our national partner NCJA noted in a press release this week, the USCCR report states clearly that “Zionism, a political belief, is not a facet of Jewish ancestry.” Anti-Zionist or anti-Israel expressions, it argues, “cannot simply be presumed to amount to anti-Jewish ancestry discrimination.” This marks a dramatic reversal from the Commission’s 2006 report on the subject, which was spearheaded by Kenneth Marcus, then staff director at the USCCR and now chairman of the Brandeis Center.
CJFS’s own testimony to the Commission in March made clear that collapsing Jewish ethnic identity and pro-Israel political opinions only feeds antisemitism. Efforts to combat bigotry against Jewish people must “promote laws and policies consistent with America’s highest ideals and commitments to racial equality, civil rights, and civil liberties.”
The Commission has taken a brave step. Now it's our turn. Please share the USCCR report and cover statement with your campus leaders and elected political representatives. Schedule meetings with your university leadership to explain. This valuable document will help us advocate for academic freedom and collective liberation on our university campuses.
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Concerned Jewish Faculty and Staff is a membership organization of Jewish faculty and staff from colleges and universities throughout New England. We represent a range of backgrounds and hold diverse views, but we are united in opposing the invocation of Jews and Jewishness — and misguided or cynical claims of antisemitism — to penalize Palestine solidarity activism, to stifle academic freedom, or to otherwise attack inclusionary commitments.
CJFS is a member of the National Campus Jewish Alliance (NCJA), a national network of diverse groups of Jewish higher education workers united by our commitments to critical inquiry, freedom of expression, and multiracial democracy on our campuses and beyond. NCJA is a fiscally sponsored project of JFREJ Community, Inc.
Concerned Jewish Faculty and Staff