Princeton University

1. Princeton does not have a full-scale degree-granting program or dedicated faculty focused on the study of Western Civilization or American civics. It does offer two noteworthy programs focused in different ways on advancing classical liberal education: (i) a research center and honors society called the James Madison Program on American Ideals and Institutions, which offers courses, special events, and student mentoring; and (ii) a Great Books program called the Humanistic Studies Program.
2. The James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions is an academic center run by Professor Robert George, one of America’s most prominent constitutional thinkers and conservative intellectuals. George has spearheaded the Madison Program for over two decades

• • In conjunction with the Politics Department, the James Madison Program runs the “Track in American Ideas and Institutions,” a curated set of course options drawing from American politics, political theory, and public law. Students must take five courses across four topics: (i) the Executive Branch; (ii) the Legislative Branch; (iii) the Constitution and the Courts; and (iv) American Political, Legal, and Constitutional Thought. The sequence concludes with a senior thesis.
  • The James Madison Program brings to campus many excellent visiting faculty and lectures — leading journalists, judges, policymakers, and academic leaders. Undergraduate fellows regularly participate in discussions with visiting scholars, gaining contact with some of the most interesting and thoughtful thinkers in the nation.
  • The Madison Program funds a rotating series of courses each semester. Spring 2026 courses included seminars on “Power and Morality in Greek Literature,” “Totalitarianism and Humanism,” “Civil Liberties,” “Natural Law and Natural Rights,” “The Constitution and the Presidency,” and “Modern Political Theory.”
  • In May 2025, the Executive Director of the Madison Program, Professor Shilo Brooks, was named President and CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. Brooks has been replaced as Executive Director by Professor Adam Thomas, previously Associate Director of the Lyceum Program at Clemson University.

3. The Humanistic Studies Program is a two-semester Great Books program covering a large portion of the Western canon — though it has recently included texts from the “postcolonial” studies canon, such as Franz Fanon. The first semester covers antiquity and the Middle Ages (Hebrew Bible, Greek tragedies, Plato and Aristotle, medieval literature); the second surveys the early modern period through the 20^th century (Shakespeare, Milton, early and late modern philosophers, 19^th- and 20^th-century literature, and colonial criticism).

Princeton’s faculty and courses on both Jewish thought and civilization and on Israel and the modern Middle East are uneven, with excellent teachers and scholars mixed with extreme professors who are publicly hostile to Israel and Jewish civilization. The best faculty members include:

Leora Batnitzky

Dr. Batnitzky is a leading scholar of Jewish thought and modern philosophy, with significant work on Franz Rosenzweig and Leo Strauss, as well as the development of Judaism as a modern religion. She is the director of the Program in Judaic Studies and has been a long-time faculty member in many Tikvah programs.

Yaacob Dweck

A historian of early modern Europe and European Jewry, Dr. Dweck’s work examines the rise of Kabbalah in 17th century Venice and a biography of the rabbi who tried to curb Sabbatai Zevi’s messianic movement. He has taught courses on modern European conservative thought (Burke, Schmitt) and modern Jewish history.

Bernard Haykel

Dr. Haykal is a historian of Arabia and the Middle East who avoids the extreme ideological tendencies of many peers. He writes intelligently on Middle Eastern affairs and has held leadership roles in the James Madison Program.

Eve Krakowski

A historian of the medieval Middle East, focusing on Jews in Egypt and the Cairo Geniza documents. Dr. Krakowski also teaches “Great Books of the Jewish Tradition,” covering primary texts from the Hebrew Bible through Spinoza.

Many of Princeton’s primary humanities departments have adopted political stances or embraced academic trends that conflict with the goals of classical liberal education. While the larger picture is troubled, there are still numerous excellent teachers and scholars. These include:

Robert George

Professor George is one of America’s most prominent conservative intellectuals. At Princeton, he has spearheaded the James Madison Program for over two decades, carving out space for serious study of American ideals and institutions. He frequently teaches courses on constitutional interpretation, natural law and rights, and civil liberties.

David Bell

A historian of early modern Europe and modern warfare, recently named a fellow at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Dr. Bell teaches courses on “European history from 1750 to the present and on the history of warfare in the modern West.” He has written extensively on the Napoleonic age.

Gregory Conti

Dr. Conti teaches history of political thought. His modern political theory course requires close reading of Hobbes, Locke and Tocqueville. He has also become a public advocate for academic heterodoxy and against the ideological one-sidedness of the modern academy.

Sean Wilentz

A leading historian of American political development, specializing in the early-to-middle 19th century, Professor Wilentz’s book, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln, is commonly found on required reading lists for courses on American history.

Harold James

A prominent historian of economics and modern Europe, Professor James’s classes on the history of modern finance are large and popular. He frequently teaches a course on the cultural, industrial, and economic development of modern Europe.

Thomas Kelly

Dr. Kelly is a philosophy professor who teaches a recurring course on the intellectual foundations of modern conservatism, including the study of Thomas Sowell. In the current academic environment, a sober attempt to understand conservative thought is uncommon and worth noting.

Michael Reynolds

A historian of Russia, Eurasia, and the Ottoman Empire, Dr. Reynolds frequently teaches on the history of the Caucasus and on American foreign policy in Eurasia and the Middle East.

Simone Marchesi

Part of the French and Italian faculty, many of Professor Marchesi’s courses cover Latin literature. He frequently teaches Dante’s Inferno and other classic medieval authors.

Chabad

The Chabad House, led by Rabbi Eitan and Gitty Webb, has established a significant presence on campus. This includes:

1. Facilities and Programming:
   • Recently renovated Chabad House with extensive study and community spaces.
   • Weekly coffee hour with pastries and a student barista.
   • Shabbat meals (separate from Center for Jewish Life (CJL) offerings).
   • Weekly lunch-and-learn sessions.
   • “Banot” events specifically for Jewish women.
2. Leadership: The Webbs are described as “fantastic” and as having “built a great community.” Rabbi Webb is characterized as someone who “would work with anyone.”
3. Student Base: Orthodox and Zionist students tend to gravitate toward Chabad, while progressive and less Zionist students tend to affiliate with the CJL, the campus Hillel. Many Jews, awakened by the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, began thinking anew about what it means to be a Jew and why it matters. They have also found a welcome home at Chabad.

Center for Jewish Life / Princeton Hillel

The CJL serves as Princeton’s Hillel and shares its space with Yavneh, the Orthodox student organization, which maintains its own endowment and prayer services.

1. Leadership: Rabbi Gil Steinlauf serves as Executive Director and Jewish Chaplain. Steinlauf returned to Princeton in July 2023 after serving as senior rabbi at Congregation Kol Shalom (Conservative) in Rockville, Maryland, and previously at Adas Israel (Conservative) in Washington, D.C. Before his return, he founded the Hineni Institute for LGBTQ Jewish Leadership.
2. Programming and Political Orientation: CJL has moved in a more left-leaning direction in recent years. There was significant internal tension following Oct. 7, particularly around the display of an Israeli flag. CJL leadership resisted displaying one for an extended period, and when it was finally put up, it required considerable student pressure and resulted in substantial internal conflict. A recent alumnus characterizes CJL’s stance as “not really anti-Israel, but more conflicted with inner tension.”

Yavneh

Yavneh is the Orthodox student organization co-housed with CJL. It maintains its own endowment and prayer services, and shared use of CJL facilities.

Religious Infrastructure

Students report a “very positive experience” for observant life at Princeton. This includes comprehensive kosher dining, a strong Chabad community, a Hillel integrated with Orthodox student groups, a campus eruv, and daily minyanim.

1. Kosher Dining: All Princeton students have access to kosher dining. The system is well-integrated into campus life, with many non-Jewish students also eating in the kosher dining hall, reducing isolation for observant students. In addition to three daily meals at CJL, late kosher meals are available on Sunday evenings at 9:45/10:00 pm.
2. Eruv: Princeton maintains a campus eruv with student checkers from Yavneh who verify its integrity weekly, demonstrating an engaged, lay-led halachic community.
3. Daily Minyanim: All weekday minyanim are Orthodox and held at CJL by the Yavneh student group. Friday night and Shabbat services at CJL offer Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform options.

Pro-Israel Engagement

1. Tigers for Israel
   • Tigers for Israel operates out of Hillel and is constrained by Hillel’s institutional limitations and progressive ideological leanings. The organization focuses primarily on cultural programming and celebrating Israeli holidays. Students say it has been relatively ineffective during confrontation with the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and struggles to “move the needle” on Israel-related controversies. It is described as more “Jewish community focused” than an effective advocacy organization.
2. B’artzeinu
   •  B’artzeinu emerged in recent years as a more right-leaning, strongly pro-Israel voice. It distinguishes itself through larger-scale events that attract audiences beyond the Jewish community. It presents more explicit and uncompromising pro-Israel programming, events co-sponsored with academic departments, and community-focused happenings including dinners and Q&A sessions with speakers such as The New York Times columnist Bret Stephens. B’artzeinu has filled a gap for students seeking forthright pro-Israel advocacy unconstrained by Hillel guidelines.

Princeton has a meaningful cluster of intellectually serious student organizations outside the formal curriculum. This includes:

1. The Princeton Tory
   • Founded in October 1984 by philosopher Yoram Hazony, The Princeton Tory is Princeton’s premier journal of conservative and moderate political thought, and by its own description, “the sole voice for conservative and moderate students at Princeton.” It has played a significant role in national debates and has an exceptionally distinguished alumni record. Notable Tory alumni include Senator Ted Cruz and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Recent editors, Darius Gross and Alexandra Orbuch, are also Tikvah alumni.
   • The Tory has provided a home for many Tikvah-aligned students and has covered post-Oct. 7 developments on campus more thoroughly than any other student publication. It is the essential outlet for students who want to write critically about the direction of the university.

2. Alexander Hamilton Society (AHS) — Princeton Chapter
   • The AMS was co-founded at Princeton in March 2010 by Professor Aaron Friedberg of Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, along with Daniel Blumenthal of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and Roy Katzovicz, Chairman of the AIE Board. Its stated mission is to confront U.S. foreign, economic, and national security policy failures at their source — American universities. The Princeton chapter is described as “Princeton University’s premier foreign and economic policy debate organization.” It hosts speakers, seminars, and debates and connects students to careers in foreign policy, national security, and public affairs.

3. The Cliosophic Society
   • The Cliosophic Society (Clio) is the right-leaning society within Princeton’s historic Whig-Clio debating institution. It regularly hosts notable conservative speakers and events, providing a structured venue for conservative intellectual engagement distinct from the more journal-focused Tory.

4. Tikvah Campus Chapter and Recent Alumni
   Princeton has generally had an active Tikvah Campus Chapter in recent years. The chapter has organized programming aligned with Tikvah’s intellectual mission and has served as a pipeline connecting Princeton students to Tikvah’s broader network of fellowships and programs. Princeton has a strong community of students and alumni who have gone through and continue to participate in Tikvah programs and fellowships.

• • Tal Fortgang – ‘17. Alum of multiple Tikvah programs, including Beren Fellow, Krauthammer Fellow, and Legal Fellow. Fortgang earned his J.D. at NYU, clerked in federal courts, worked for AEI, and is now Legal Policy Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He is a prolific writer in City Journal, Commentary, Tablet, The Dispatch, National Review, and others.
  • Jonathan Feld – ‘18. Krauthammer Fellow. At Princeton, Feld published a historical monograph on a Revolutionary-era naval mutiny. He earned a J.D. from Yale (president of the Federalist Society, editor of multiple Yale law journals), clerked for then-Senator Ben Sasse, and is now an associate at Boyden Gray in Washington, D.C.
  • Adam Hoffman – ‘23. Tikvah Scholars Program. Hoffman wrote for The Princeton Tory, covering anti-Israel fervor and the steady creep of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) framework into the university. Since graduating, he worked at the Citadel hedge fund before joining the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). He was a 2025 Publius Fellow at the Claremont Institute.
  • Darius Gross – ‘24. Beren Summer Fellow. Gross ran the Tikvah campus chapter at Princeton and served as Publisher of The Princeton Tory. He has worked for prominent academic and author Walter Russell Meade, interned at City Journal, and now works as an analyst for Baron, a DC-area consultancy.
  • Alexandra Orbuch – ‘25. Beren Summer Fellow. On campus, Orbuch was an editor of The Princeton Tory and an undergraduate fellow with the James Madison Program. Her writing about Princeton has been featured in Tablet Magazine.

Like many peer campuses, the Oct. 7 attacks provoked a wave of anti-Zionist and antisemitic activity at Princeton. Princeton’s “Students for Justice in Palestine” called for a teach-in “to discuss recent events, their historical context, and how we can join in the struggle for Palestinian liberation” and issued a statement holding “the Israeli apartheid state ultimately responsible for the tremendous loss of life” and describing Oct. 7 as “an unprecedented uprising.” On Oct. 25, a group of Princeton graduate students led a “Walkout in Solidarity with Palestine,” with some 300 chanting “from the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” and calling for an intifada. A subsequent Nov. 9 walkout featured similar chants.

Tension rose up again in April 2024, when Princeton students established a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” with participation growing to approximately 250 students. Protesters held signs calling for the “freedom” of a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group, while another waved the flag of the Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist militia. “Dozens” of Princeton professors held courses inside the encampment, gave “words of encouragement to protesters, and offered help,” according to the Princeton Alumni Weekly. On April 29, student protestors and a small contingent of faculty members took over Clio Hall, a campus building.

President Christopher Eisgruber’s formal communications in response to these events evolved from a statement of sympathy for the victims of Israel after Oct. 7 to a series of clarifications following congressional scrutiny of Harvard, UPenn, and MIT. He stated he had “never heard calls for genocide” on campus, while committing to respond forcefully if such calls were made. He defended the university’s free-speech commitments while acknowledging that Princeton “cannot censor speech.” In April 2024, the university warned undergraduates that anyone involved in an encampment who refused to stop after a warning would be “arrested and immediately barred from campus.” On April 29, 13 protesters who occupied Clio Hall were escorted out and barred from campus. They ultimately received no more than disciplinary probation.

In May 2024, Eisgruber offered to “convene a working group on the experience of Palestinian students” and confirmed that the administration would make an initial assessment of divestment demands, while clarifying that requests for academic boycotts of Israel, ceasefire statements, and complete amnesty for arrested protesters were “not open for debate.”

While the protests and disruptions have quieted, Princeton has retained and promoted various faculty members who actively participated in anti-Israel speech and activism. Dan-el Padilla Peralta, one of the professors who stormed Clio Hall, was promoted in July 2024 from associate to full professor. Peralta is a vocal supporter of BDS.

In November 2025, Princeton launched a new anthropology course on “Gender, Reproduction, and Genocide,” “with a central focus on the ongoing genocide in Gaza” taught by Nadera Shalhoub Kevorkian, a “noted Palestinian feminist” who has claimed that Hamas did not kill babies or rape women on Oct. 7. A reading for the class accuses Israel of “weaponiz[ing] reproductive health through direct military targeting, siege conditions, forced displacement, environmental toxicity, and gendered violence.”

Princeton’s “faculty of concern” include, or have recently included:

1. Max Weiss (Associate Professor, History)
   • Weiss specializes in 20th- and 21st-century Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel. In his published writing he describes Israel’s conduct in terms of genocide and ethnic cleansing, and has dismissed Israeli accounts of Hamas using civilian infrastructure as fabrications. He has been a BDS advocate for over a decade: in 2014 he circulated a divestment petition and was photographed at a protest holding a sign reading “Another Jew Ashamed of Israel’s Insatiable War Machine.”
   • Weiss was the first faculty member to hold class at the 2024 encampment, leading his History of Palestine/Israel class in McCosh Courtyard on April 25. The Dean of the Faculty subsequently placed him on probation for “unprofessional” and “coercive” behavior. This did not prevent him from continuing to teach courses covering the State of Israel. Simultaneously, the Board of Trustees promoted him to full professor.
2. Seyed Hossein Mousavian (Program on Science and Global Security)
   • Mousavian served as a Visiting Research Collaborator at Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security, a technical and policy-focused program within the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), from 2009 until May 2025, when he retired under mounting congressional and federal pressure. During his 15 years at Princeton, he shaped public and policy discourse on Iran’s nuclear program from a position of institutional credibility.
   • His background makes his lengthy Princeton tenure a serious point of concern. Mousavian served as Iran’s Ambassador to Germany from 1990 to 1997. In 1992, Iranian agents killed three Kurdish opposition leaders and their translator in a Berlin restaurant. A German court found that the Iranian regime had planned and authorized the killings, though Mousavian was not personally charged and has denied involvement. He subsequently served as Head of the Foreign Relations Committee of Iran’s National Security Council (1997-2005) and as Iran’s nuclear negotiations spokesman to the E.U. (2003–2005). In an interview with the German daily Taz, Mousavian stated: “We support Hezbollah morally and not by supplying weapons.” Former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Iranian state television that Mousavian “continued to, and continues to, work hard for the system [of the Islamic Republic]” and “believes in, and is completely tied to, the system of the Islamic Republic and Iran.”
   • The House of Representatives Education and Workforce Committee opened an investigation into Mousavian in November 2023. In April 2025, Senator Ted Cruz urged Princeton to fire him, stating: “His presence at Princeton makes students feel justifiably afraid for their safety.” Mousavian retired “at his own request” at the end of May 2025.
3. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian (Visiting Professor, Gender and Sexuality Studies)
   • Shalhoub-Kevorkian, an Israeli Arab, was a professor at Hebrew University until she was suspended after inflammatory remarks about Israel following the Oct. 7 attacks, such as calling the state “a killing machine, a necropolitical machine that can survive only on the erasure of Palestinians.”
   • At Princeton, a number of her courses focus on the alleged violence committed by Israel. Most notably is a course titled “Gender, Reproduction, and Genocide,” which “explores genocide through the analytic of gender, with a central focus on the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” and which compares Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza with the Holocaust.
4. Kenneth Roth (Visiting Professor, School of Public and International Affairs)
   • Roth joined SPIA in Sept. 2023 teaching courses on international criminal justice and human-rights enforcement. Previously, Roth served as executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) for many years. Under Roth’s leadership, HRW adopted an increasingly adversarial posture toward Israel, culminating in its April 2021 report “A Threshold Crossed,” which formally accused Israeli authorities of crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.
   • Roth’s recruitment to Princeton followed directly from a high-profile controversy at Harvard. In 2022, Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf blocked Roth’s appointment to a fellowship at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy—a decision The Nation reported was tied to an “anti-Israel bias” and Roth’s posts on Israel. Princeton’s SPIA recruited him for the 2023–24 academic year and has retained him since

1. Manhattan Institute/City Journal — In Fall 2025, the Manhattan Institute/City Journal produced a new system of college rankings assessing schools on intellectual seriousness, cultural sanity, and overall educational value. The MI/City Journal methodology offers cumulative rankings as well as category-specific rankings.
   • Princeton ranks 24^th overall.
   • It ranks 17^th in Educational Experience and 58^th in Curricular Rigor, reflecting a lack of strong, required liberal arts or civics coursework.
   • Princeton ranks 12^th in heterodox Infrastructure. The James Madison Program improves this score, but the lack of an institutionally backed center with its own faculty and academic majors leaves Princeton well behind schools like the University of Florida and UT Austin.
   • Princeton ranks 44^th in Leadership Quality, 53^rd in Commitment to Meritocracy, and 43^rd in Resistance to Politicization — reflecting its large DEI bureaucracy and activist institutional commitments.
   • Princeton ranks 78^th for “Jewish Campus Climate.”
   • Princeton ranks 14^th in Outcomes, outperforming its overall position. It ranks 4^th in “Payback Education Investment” and 9^th in “Value Added to Career.”

2. Wall Street Journal — The WSJ rankings weight outcomes heavily (70%), with salary impact (50%) and graduation rate impact (20%) the dominant factors.
   • Princeton is currently 4^th in WSJ rankings. It scores very highly on salary impact and graduation rate, but a low diversity score and uneven survey results bring it slightly below the top.

3. American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) “What Will They Learn?” — ACTA grades schools on the strength of their college-wide liberal arts curricula, scoring universities on how many of seven core subjects are required of all undergraduates.
   • Princeton earns a C. Of the seven core subject areas, Princeton only requires three: composition, foreign language, and science.
   • ACTA credits the James Madison Program as an “Oasis of Excellence.” The Humanistic Studies program is not mentioned.

4. ADL Campus Antisemitism Report Card — In response to the troubled campus environments in the wake of Oct. 7, the ADL has been grading schools on antisemitism from F to A.
   • ADL gives Princeton a C (marked as an improvement). Princeton receives the highest possible scores in publicly disclosed administrative actions (above expectations) and in Jewish life on campus (excellent), while receiving the worst possible score in campus conduct and climate concerns (high).
   • Princeton gets a green check for having policies prohibiting encampments, but the more important question is enforcement. Effectively, the ADL criteria make it impossible to distinguish between schools with significantly variable administrative responses to antisemitism.

5. U.S. News & World Report (USNWR) — Princeton is 1^st in the USNWR national university rankings.
6. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) — FIRE ranks Princeton 176/261 on free speech, down 16 from 2025. Princeton receives an overall grade of F, with a “red” spotlight rating, taking a D+ for administrative support and an F for political tolerance.
7. Forbes — Princeton is 3^rd on the Forbes list, reflecting high median salaries, high graduation rates, and the number of Princeton graduates in prominent positions across various fields.