A Reckoning on Campus: The Hidden Toll of Antisemitism and Forced Union Loyalty After October 7
A Reckoning! Will Sussman faced a personal reckoning as a graduate student at MIT
In the early hours of October 7, 2023, the world watched in horror as Hamas militants unleashed a barbaric assault on Israel, slaughtering over 1,200 innocents in the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Babies were murdered in their cribs, women raped, families burned alive, and hundreds taken hostage. The savagery sent shockwaves far beyond the Middle East, fracturing communities and igniting a surge of antisemitism that has seeped into the most unexpected corners of American life—including the ivory towers of higher education.
On U.S. college campuses, where intellectual freedom is supposed to thrive, the aftermath has been a nightmare of division, protest, and outright hostility. Jewish students, already grappling with the trauma of the massacre, have faced encampments, chants of “intifada,” and boycotts that echo the very ideologies behind the attack. But the pain isn’t confined to Jewish students alone; non-Jewish peers, too, have witnessed their learning environments poisoned by unchecked bigotry, disruptive actions, and a culture of fear that stifles open dialogue. Amid this chaos, one young man’s story stands out as a stark emblem of the personal and systemic heartache: Will Sussman, a Jewish doctoral student at MIT, whose fight against a union’s antisemitic stance exposes the deeper rot of compelled complicity in hate.
MIT Graduate Student Union Goes Rogue
Sussman, a computer science PhD candidate working part-time to fund his studies, found his world upended not just by the October 7 atrocities but by the response from his own graduate student union, the MIT Graduate Student Union (GSU), affiliated with the United Electrical Workers (UE).
In the days following the massacre—while blood was still drying on Israeli soil—union representatives and members celebrated the attack as a “victory,” joined anti-Israel protests that occupied buildings, and endorsed the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which the Anti-Defamation League describes as a campaign to delegitimize Israel and isolate its supporters, including Jews who affirm its right to exist.
The GSU’s actions weren’t mere rhetoric; they included backing protesters facing suspension, organizing demonstrations outside MIT’s Discrimination and Harassment Office with signs equating anti-Zionism to harmless opinion, and even placing a vice president on paid leave after her arrest at a protest—all while demanding dues from members like Sussman to fund this agenda.
For Will, a sincere Jew with family in Israel, this was more than offensive; it was a profound betrayal of his faith and values. “Supporting these campus actions wasn’t just a betrayal. It was a wound to my soul,” he later recounted in a powerful video produced by the National Institute for Labor Relations Research (NILRR).
Trapped in Massachusetts, a state without right-to-work protections, he faced an impossible choice: pay fees to subsidize what he saw as anti-Semitic activism or risk losing his job. The union’s cold response to his pleas for exemption—claiming they understood his Judaism better than he did, citing a Jewish founder and dismissing his opposition to BDS as non-religious—only deepened the anguish. It was a visceral reminder that, in non-right-to-work states, workers can be forced to fund ideologies they abhor, turning unions into vehicles for extremism rather than advocates for labor rights.
Sussman’s resolve turned personal torment into action. With support from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, he filed charges against the UE with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for religious discrimination, joined by four other Jewish students.
He also lodged unfair labor practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which ruled that the GSU had violated workers’ rights by failing to inform them of their options to opt out of full membership.
Sussman Testifies Before Congress
But Will didn’t stop there. In July 2024, he testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in a hearing titled “Confronting Union Antisemitism: Protecting Workers from Big Labor Bigotry,” laying bare the union’s actions and calling for national right-to-work legislation to prevent such coercion.
His testimony highlighted a chilling reality: “We can’t remove the GSU or disabuse it of its antisemitism, but neither should we be compelled to support an organization that works for the eradication of the Jewish homeland.”
This isn’t an abstract policy debate—it’s a human crisis affecting campuses nationwide. Jewish students report feeling isolated and unsafe, with incidents of harassment spiking dramatically since October 7. Non-Jewish students, meanwhile, endure the broader fallout: classes disrupted, friendships fractured, and a learning atmosphere tainted by violence and intolerance that administrators have too often allowed to fester.
Labor union officials, empowered by forced dues in 24 states, have amplified this toxicity, using member funds for political stances that alienate minorities and endorse hate. As the Sussman video poignantly captures, the result is exhaustion, revulsion, and a generation losing its innocence to these forces.
Sussman’s Story Exposes the Need for Congressional Action
Understanding Sussman’s story is vital because it reveals the urgent need for change. It shows how the absence of right-to-work laws enables unions to wield unaccountable influence, forcing individuals to bankroll bigotry under threat of unemployment. Will’s courage has already secured dispensations for thousands of students, protecting them from subsidizing calls for Jewish eradication.
Yet, the fight persists. Tomorrow, July 15, 2025, the same congressional committee convenes again for “Antisemitism in Higher Education: Examining the Role of Faculty, Funding, and Ideology,” a hearing that promises to scrutinize how such ideologies take root and spread.
This session, building on testimonies like Sussman’s, underscores that antisemitism on campus isn’t just about protests—it’s intertwined with funding streams, faculty biases, and institutional failures that demand accountability.
For the sake of all students yearning for safe, equitable education, we must heed Sussman’s call. Watch the NILRR video to witness his journey from anguish to advocacy. Support right-to-work reforms to ensure labor union bosses earn dues through persuasion, not compulsion. And tune into tomorrow’s hearing to see if Congress will finally confront this reckoning. In a time when campuses should foster healing, not hate, stories like Will Sussman’s remind us: silence is no longer an option.