Shortly before the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, Sharon Nazarian ensured that her new UCLA course on global antisemitism would be housed in the global studies department, deliberately choosing a diverse student body over the more niche Jewish or Israel studies departments.

But in response to rising Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions activity on campuses since Oct. 7, Nazarian and her family’s philanthropic organization, the Younes & Soroya Nazarian Family Foundation, announced a pivot this week, partnering with Hebrew Union College for a new initiative at University of Southern California’s Louchheim School for Judaic Studies. 

The initiative will focus “on educating students about extremism, rising hate and antisemitism as a gateway to broader bigotry” through multiple courses, according to HUC, which has run a partnership with USC for more than five decades.  

Initially, the family’s gift was earmarked for USC’s school of fine arts, established as an annual endowment for a guest lecturer from Israel, but “deans of that school refused to host Israeli scholars and academics within the arts and humanities,” Nazarian told eJewishPhilanthropy. 

“This is a boycott campaign that is becoming normalized. We as a family felt the only way to fight that was to use the endowment towards something that actually fights the fundamentals underneath the BDS movement, which is singling out one country for issues that no other country is held up to,” said Nazarian, a former adjunct professor at UCLA from 2005-2017 who briefly returned in 2023 to teach her new course. 

“So this is a repurposing of that endowment, and we’re thankful to USC for agreeing and honoring our wishes as donors to put the endowment towards something even more critically important today, which is the study of contemporary antisemitism in the U.S. and around the world,” Nazarian, a graduate of USC, told eJP. 

Nazarian said the courses are designed for Jewish and non-Jewish students alike. A class has been taught in past years at USC that is similar — focusing on antisemitism, racism and other forms of hate — which Nazarian said drew “a very diverse group of students coming from diverse ethnic and racial groups.”

“The beauty was that they all learned about antisemitism, racism and Holocaust denial,” she said. 

“It’s an effective mechanism of attracting a more diverse group of students,” she continued, adding that the course is expected to be taught every other year, while another class focusing on trends in global antisemitism will be taught the other years. 

“Attracting students who are interested in global issues should still be a focus for us,” continued Nazarian. “How [else] can we understand global issues like climate change or global health? Antisemitism has to be understood and researched in that same lens.” 

Recent events that have rocked Jewish communities worldwide — from the massacre in Bondi Beach in December to the foiled terrorist attack at a Michigan synagogue last week — have “only confirmed that thesis,” said Nazarian. “Hopefully, students of global issues will see that hate travels across borders. Understanding antisemitism is a unique lens to understand that.” 

“This gift reflects exactly the kind of partnership that allows institutions like ours to meet this moment,” Andrew Rehfeld, president of HUC, said in a statement. “Hebrew Union College has long been committed to fostering Jewish identity, pride, and scholarship, and this initiative deepens that mission in a vital way. The Nazarian family understands that combating antisemitism requires sustained, serious effort — and their investment will ensure that students at USC have access to the rigorous, expert-led education this subject demands.”