Elise Stefanik’s new book recounts the dangerous extremism in higher education

Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R-NY) new book, Poisoned Ivies, opens with a premise that many American Jews have come to learn painfully: elite universities in the United States have become incubators for ideological extremism, moral confusion, and open antisemitism. But reading the book as merely a political critique of higher education misses what makes it so unsettling. For many readers, the crisis Stefanik documents is deeply personal. It forces a painful reassessment not just of institutions, but of friendships, communities, and people we once trusted.

Recently, one of my best friends from middle and high school posted a meme blaming the murders of everyone from JFK to Charlie Kirk to Princess Diana on Benjamin Netanyahu and “his people.” We have been friends for thirty years, and she’s always known I’m Jewish. We haven’t seen each other in years, but we’ve kept in touch via social media and bonded over how similar our lives