To Resist the Academic Intifada

How can students fight back in the information war?

Since October 7, many students—and their parents—have been reeling. Hamas’s rampage through Israel unleashed waves of anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Americanism—which had been building for decades, especially on campus. In these letters to his students, Professor Gil Troy, American presidential historian and Zionist activist, pushes back against the growing despair regarding America and the assault on Zionism, Israel, and the Jews.

Recounting the journey he and his family took as Eastern European Boat People, Troy tells the story of Generation Hope—when millions of Americans trusted that their lives would be better than their parents’ and grandparents’. His compelling trajectory from lower-middle-class Queens to Harvard, then to McGill, reinforced his faith in Americanism, liberalism, and Zionism. Alas, he confronted the hyper-politicization of academia two decades before the Academic Intifada’s eruption on October 7, 2023, when too many intellectuals, self-styled Progressives, and feminists cheered for terrorism, torture, kidnapping, and mass rape. Troy has long led this resistance to these snowflake revolutionaries, articulating an affirmative vision of proud Americanism and fearless Zionism. He now urges his students and peers to tell their Mayflower Tales—from Old World oppression and poverty to New World opportunities.

In telling this true, textured, all-American yet deeply Jewish story of an ever-improving nation pursuing happiness, where progressives believe in progress, and conservatives conserve institutions, he also explains his vision of Identity Zionism, a liberal-democratic nationalism that is proud, affirming, and inspiring, confident enough to be self-critical when necessary but ready to mobilize, build, rebuild, and dream always.

About Gil Troy

Dr. Gil Troy is a leading political historian, and one of today's most prominent activists in the fight against the delegitimization of Israel. He is a former Professor of History at McGill University, and a Research Fellow in the Shalom Hartman Institute's Engaging Israel Program. Professor Troy's writings have appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, and other major media outlets. He writes a weekly column for The Jerusalem Post, and is Editor-at-Large of The Daily Beast's Open Zion blog. Professor Troy is the author of eight books, including biographies of Ronald Reagan and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

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Praise for Troy and To Resist the Academic Intifada

Michael Oren, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States

Noa Tishby, former Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and New York Times Best-Selling Author

I cannot think of a timelier and more essential book for pro-Israel students—and their parents—confronting virulent antisemitism, anti-Americanism, and anti-liberalism on their campuses. Gil Troy’s work belongs in the core curriculum of all those willing to stand up and defend the State of Israel.

Noa Tishby, former Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and New York Times Best-Selling Author

As Jews, we tell stories in ways that are personal, compelling, and inspiring. That is precisely what Professor Gil Troy has done in these important and timely letters. If you want to know Why Israel, Why Zionism, Why Liberalism, Why Americanism, Why stand up for yourselves – and how to fight the Jihadists and what he accurately calls The Academic Intifada – read this book… now.

Shai Davidai, Assistant Professor of Management, Columbia Business School

Noa Tishby, former Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and New York Times Best-Selling Author

Colonel Miri Eisin, Fellow, International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Reichman University

Weaving his own family history with the history of Zionism, Gil Troy’s newest book beautifully exemplifies how the fight for a Jewish homeland is an ongoing struggle that ties together our past, present, and future. Zionism, as Troy shows, is not something that happens “out there,” but rather something that lives and breathes inside each and every one of us. Equal parts memoir, Jewish history, and user’s manual, this book is simultaneously a call to action and a guide for the perplexed, inviting Jewish students across the world to join an ongoing conversation that our people has been having for more than a century. And, like a good user’s manual, the success of this book will ultimately rest not in who will read it but in what they will choose to do after putting it down.

Colonel Miri Eisin, Fellow, International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Reichman University

How do you give tools to young people today to stand proudly as Zionists? There is no clear-cut manual. Read through Gil’s letters. It will help the students; I suggest the parents read it as well. We are all looking for answers and ways to convey our present reality – and as usual Gil is helping us with words that describe and frame our perspective. This is a book to give every Jewish and non-Jewish student in these times.

Eylon Levy, former Israeli Government Spokesman

Colonel Miri Eisin, Fellow, International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Reichman University

Saul Singer, co-author with Dan Senor, The Genius of Israel and Start-Up Nation.

On campuses worldwide, Jewish students are mobilizing to resist the Campus Tentifada. They are the Gen-Zionists, bravely standing up to the bullies - outnumbered, outmanned, and too often, alone. In To Resist the Academic Intifada, Professor Gil Troy offers them a rallying cry and words of wisdom as they scramble to form a Jewish resistance to a movement that threatens to drag the whole world down and backward. 

Saul Singer, co-author with Dan Senor, The Genius of Israel and Start-Up Nation.

Colonel Miri Eisin, Fellow, International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Reichman University

Saul Singer, co-author with Dan Senor, The Genius of Israel and Start-Up Nation.

At this trying time, Troy reminds us, both Americans and Israelis, that we are not alone, that we can draw on deep roots of hope and identity that our enemies can never understand or destroy. With this book, the inimitable Gil Troy has given you the tools to snap out of the paralyzing shock and start to fight back

About the author

A Senior Fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, the Global ThinkTank of the Jewish People, and a Distinguished Scholar in North American History at McGill University currently living in Jerusalem, Professor Gil Troy is an award-winning American presidential historian and a leading Zionist activist. He is the author of “To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream,” just published by Wicked Son.
This summer, Troy also published “The Essential Guide to October 7th and its Aftermath: Facts, Figures, History,” which has been translated into French and widely reprinted. He is the editor of the new three-volume set, “Theodor Herzl: Zionist Writings,” the inaugural publication of The Library of the Jewish People. In 2020, he and Natan Sharansky co-authored Never Alone: Prison, Politics and My People. This Memoirfesto or Manifestoire, as they call it, was published by PublicAffairs of Hachette. In 2023, an updated paperback edition appeared along with, as a Hebrew translation.

In the Foreword to Troy’s best-selling, instant-classic The Zionist Ideas: Visions for the Jewish Homeland – Then, Now, Tomorrow, Natan Sharansky writes: “This magnificent work is the perfect follow-up to Arthur Hertzberg’s classic The Zionist Idea. Combining, like Hertzberg, a scholar’s eye and an activist’s ear, Gil Troy demonstrates that we now live in a world of Zionist Ideas, with many different ways to help Israel flourish as a democratic Jewish state.” Recently designated an Algemeiner J-100, one of the top 100 people “positively influencing Jewish life,” Troy wrote The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s, and ten other books on the American presidency. One leading historian called Age of Clinton “the best book on the man and his times.” Troy edited and updated another classic, the multi-volume History of American Presidential Campaigns, originally edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. and Fred Israel.

Troy’s book Moynihan’s Moment: America’s Fight against Zionism as Racism, describes the fall of the UN, the rise of Reagan and the spread of Anti-Zionism. Jewish Ideas Daily designated it one of 2012’s “best books.” He appeared as a featured commentator on CNN’s popular multipart documentaries, The Eighties, The Nineties, and The 2000s. He was just interviewed for “The 2010s.” He has been interviewed on most major North American TV and Radio networks. Troy has published essays in the American, Canadian, and Israeli media, including writing essays for the New York Times’ “Campaign Stops” in 2012 and 2016. He wrote a weekly column for the Daily Beast, “Secret Lives,” putting current events in historical perspective, and writes a weekly column for the Jerusalem Post. Recent articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The Hill, and The Jewish Journal, among other publications.