Legal scholar Alan Dershowitz has thrown his weight behind President Donald Trump’s pledge to slash federal funding for schools failing to shield Jewish students from anti-Semitic harassment, pinpointing Barnard College as the prime target.
In a scathing column, Dershowitz argues that the New York women’s college—affiliated with Columbia University—has devolved into a hub of “anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-decent activities,” making it the ideal starting point for Trump’s crackdown.
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Trump’s vow, rolled out amid rising campus tensions, aims to penalize institutions tolerating intimidation of Jewish students.
Dershowitz contends Barnard fits the bill, lacking the research heft of major universities—no medical school, minimal impactful faculty work—meaning cuts wouldn’t ripple into critical fields like medicine. “Cutting off federal aid to Barnard would have few negative impacts on issues that legitimately concern Americans,” he writes, provided it targets discriminatory acts, not free speech.
Dershowitz paints Barnard as a “poster child” for radicalism, slamming its “studies” departments—like Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies—as “propaganda mills” churning out ideology over inquiry. He cites the department’s call to “smash the white supremacist hetero-patriarchy” and its focus on “advocacy” over scholarship, arguing it fuels the college’s role as an “incubator” for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic protests.
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These demonstrations, he notes, feature masked participants—students, faculty, and outsiders—waving signs for “war” and “intifada,” blocking Jewish students’ access to classes, and occupying buildings like Milstein Hall.
The tipping point, Dershowitz says, was Barnard’s response to two students expelled for disrupting a Columbia class taught by an Israeli professor. Protesters seized Milstein Hall—named for a Jewish donor—demanding reinstatement, and administrators negotiated rather than disciplined.
“Cutting off funding from Barnard will not hurt students who want a real education,” he asserts, pointing to Columbia’s course access for Barnard students. Instead, it would ax “propaganda ‘courses’” and possibly shutter the college, which relies on federal cash as alumni donations wane.
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Barnard’s potential closure? “No great loss,” Dershowitz declares. Qualified students could transfer, and taxpayers shouldn’t foot the bill for “bigoted enterprises.”
He urges a broader reckoning for higher education, with Barnard as a “shot across the bow” to jolt administrators scared of radical backlash into protecting Jewish students. “Federal funding is not a right,” he insists—it’s a privilege earned by serving the nation, a bar Barnard no longer clears.
Dershowitz caveats that free speech must stay sacrosanct; as a private entity, Barnard isn’t bound by the First Amendment, but only physical acts—trespassing, harassment—should trigger cuts, not pure protests. With Trump’s policy looming, Dershowitz’s salvo marks Barnard as ground zero in a brewing fight over campus culture, federal dollars, and student safety.
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