🚨PUBLIC STATEMENT AND BREAKING NEWS 🚨
WASHINGTON, D.C. — June 2026 — Dr. Charles Asher Small, Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), delivered a keynote address at a symposium hosted on June 11, 2026, by the U.S. Department of State's Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, warning that foreign influence networks are playing an increasingly significant role in fueling the rise of antisemitism across the United States.
Drawing on ISGAP's research into foreign influence, Qatar-linked educational initiatives, and extremist ideological networks, Dr. Small examined how external actors can shape educational institutions, public discourse, and attitudes toward Jews and Israel. In his remarks, he argued that:
"Antisemitism is not a simple or parochial issue of hatred against a small community. It is a core element of the ideology of extremists that is intent on destroying democratic countries including the United States. Antisemitism must be understood as a significant security threat to the stability, cohesion, and very fabric of our great democratic nation and its core institutions. This is especially true in higher education where young people learn to be citizens. This ideology, which aims to destroy the very notion of a liberal education, also believes in the subjugation of women and the murder of gay people and Jews."
The symposium, convened by the U.S. Department of State's Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, brought together government officials, law enforcement, researchers, policy experts, and civil society leaders to discuss the rise of antisemitism and strategies for confronting it.
The event featured remarks from senior U.S. officials, including Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Senior Counselor to the President, and Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism.
Dr. Small's presentation drew on ISGAP's extensive body of research into foreign influence and ideological networks operating within American educational and civic institutions. Through its Follow the Money Project, ISGAP uncovered billions of dollars in previously undisclosed foreign gifts and contracts to American universities, helping expose the scale of foreign involvement in higher education across the United States.
Most recently, ISGAP published its landmark report, Institutional Capture: Qatar Foundation International: Use of Soft Power to Reshape Education in the United States, which documented more than $65 million in funding directed through over 220 educational programs reaching K–12 schools, universities, teacher-training initiatives, federally funded educational centers, and national educator networks.
The report forms part of ISGAP's broader research into Qatar's role within American education and its wider examination of foreign funding, transparency, and state-linked influence operations.
ISGAP has also conducted extensive research into the Muslim Brotherhood and affiliated ideological networks, examining how such movements gain influence within educational, civic, and political institutions and the role they can play in promoting antisemitic, extremist, and anti-democratic narratives.
Dr. Small argued that these findings demonstrate how foreign influence networks and ideological movements can help create the conditions in which antisemitism spreads and gains legitimacy.