A required training about discrimination, harassment, and sexual misconduct at Northwestern University is attracting ire for what critics say is a lack of protection for Jewish students and administrators.

In an email sent to staff on December 17, Northwestern administrators detailed a required HR training program that would address “many forms of discrimination and harassment, including race, religion, national origin and disability discrimination” and was updated recently to include “new components on overcoming antisemitic, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian biases.” Northwestern will “require students to complete a similar training early next year,” the email noted.

But Jewish groups on campus say that Northwestern’s omission of “anti-Zionist” or “anti-Israel” from that list is egregious, especially considering the university’s sordid history addressing anti-Israel biases. Numerous officially recognized Northwestern student groups have praised Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and spewed vitriol about “Zionist propaganda.” The Middle Eastern and North African Student Association said that the October 7 “moment in history is integral to rightfully earning back what has been lost.” The administration failed to respond to these and many more events.

“By including a wide range of protected categories while omitting modern forms of antisemitism, the University is contradicting their own stated goals of equity and inclusion, underscoring a troubling prioritization of certain political identities and revealing a bias of its own,” the Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern said in a statement. “This omission is particularly egregious given Northwestern’s refusal to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, or to clearly define antisemitism in its code of conduct. The IHRA definition underscores the interconnectedness of antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Israel biases.”

If Northwestern expanded its definition to include in the training discussion about anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian biases, it should include discussion about anti-Jewish, anti-Zionist, and anti-Israeli biases as well, CAAN added.

“This updated policy trivializes documented discrimination and neglects the lived experiences of Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist students,” Michael Teplitsky, president of CAAN, said. “By prioritizing certain biases over others, Northwestern sends a clear message: some forms of hate clearly matter more than others.”