OpEd: We Need a New Ivy-League-Style University for Jewish Students

By Norma Zager

BEVERLY HILLS, California — When campus protests unveiled the extent of long-festering antisemitism in America’s colleges and universities, I contacted some of the wealthiest Jewish benefactors that had been funding these schools for years.

They donated huge sums of money, although it has been long been known how dangerous these schools were becoming for Jewish students. These endowments funded antisemitic professors and financed hatred against our own children and grandchildren.

My suggestion to these uber donors was to fund a Jewish Ivy League university dedicated to creating a place of higher learning. A school where students could thrive in a safe and expansive atmosphere.

This has long been our way. The Jewish way. When Jewish doctors weren’t allowed into hospitals, we built our own. When hotels and country clubs were closed to us, places like Hillcrest served the needs of wealthy Los Angeles area Jewish families denied membership in restricted social establishments.

There are many more examples of how the Jewish community always found a way to take care of our own. Yet now when our young people are threatened and deprived of an education, we cannot find the funding? Many uber donors shared with me that their finances were tied up at present and could not contribute.

Isn’t one of the canons of Judaism, educating our children? Taking care of our own? Did the rules change or did I miss a meeting?

I am shocked by the response I received in the face of such a grave emergency for our community.

We need to rethink our priorities as a people and put our students first.

There is no doubt it has always been our way and worked well for us. Now is the time to do the right thing. We must educate Jewish youth in light of the overt desire to harm them and prohibit learning.

I urge everyone to rally together and create an extraordinary world-class Ivy League university for our young people. This is a time for all Jewish people to hyper focus our priorities on the safety of future generations.

I know we have the resources, now we must secure the resolve.

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Norma Zager, former editor of The Beverly Hills Courier, also is a former executive director of the Friends of Israeli Firefighters.  She co-hosts the radio program “Conversations Eye to Eye” on Crawford Broadcasting.