Our Chapter News

We represent the 92-member voluntary UI group Faculty for Academic Freedom and Against Antisemitism (FAFAA). We are writing to add a faculty perspective to the April 1, 2026, letter from Arnold & Porter (A&P) submitted to the University of Illinois (UI), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) administration, and University Board of Trustees (BOT).

We write on behalf of the Jewish United Fund Chicago (“JUF”), Hillel International (“Hillel”),
and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (“Brandeis”) (collectively, the
“Organizations”) to express the Organizations’ ongoing concerns regarding the University of
Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s (“UIUC” or the “University”) response to antisemitism and anti-
Zionism on its campus.

University of Illinois Chabad Rabbi Dovid Tiechtel was personally targeted with antisemitic language: mocking Jewish prayer, slandering the rabbi, and spreading blood libel.

We now take up an issue of exceptional urgency—the tenure case of a UIUC faculty member, Benjamin Bross, whose case was damaged by a series of major procedural errors, among them the appointment of several faculty members with conflicts of interest or the appearance of same.

We call your attention to and we renew FAFAA’s repeated requests to the UIUC Administration to issue clear mandates against masking whose intent is to conceal identities during an act of antisemitic protest.

We write to you in response to your request for input in the massmail of January 22 “in identifying the key challenges and opportunities facing the new Chancellor/VP and what traits and experience the committee should consider in evaluation of candidates”.

We write to you as senior administrators at UIUC or its Colleges therein whose units are co-sponsoring a fiercely anti-Jewish event: the presentation “Reproductive Genocide in Gaza: A Feminist Approach to Genocide” by Bayan Abusneineh.

The UIC chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) has applied for approval to hold a rally (a “quad takeover”) to express its support for and commemorate Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attacks on their one-year anniversary.

FACULTY FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND AGAINST ANTISEMITISM announces its
complete, unequivocal opposition to the campaign that Students for Justice in Palestine
(SJP) is waging against visiting instructor Mohammad Darawshe and the UIUC Center
for Global Studies.

I want to focus on an issue that is still outstanding and is of concern to the Jewish community. This is the problem of departmental political statements.

We write to University Administrators to express grave concerns over the LAS I-Team proposal that was recently sent out.

Our letter to UIUC reflecting on proposed revisions to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Campus Administrative Manual (CAM).

Our opinions on the proposed revisions to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Campus Administrative Manual (CAM) and on future revisions that could be made.

We are writing as the executive committee of a new faculty organization, Faculty for Academic
Freedom & Against Antisemitism.

Read our memo addressed to Chancellor Jones, Provost Coleman, and Vice Chancellor Garrick, which lays out our perspective in detail and works through our recommendations to them.

Faculty for Academic Freedom and Against Antisemitism: Mission Statement and Background Information.

Jewish Professors Fight for Israel and Against Far Left Fascists in Colleges

An academic boycott against Israel is selective, unfair, and counterproductive.

Read statements about current events on our X account.