German universities never recovered after driving Jews out. American colleges must work to avert that fate.

Almost one century ago, countless families were forced to flee the country that then housed the best universities in the world. One of those families was mine. My paternal grandparents left Germany in the 1930s with my father, who was 6 years old, and my aunt, who was 4. They were driven out of their home by an intolerable climate of antisemitism. Members of my family who did not make that decision perished.

Against today’s backdrop of rising antisemitism across the nation, and as university leaders like me decide how to keep our Jewish students safe, I am reminded of my family’s experience.

A longstanding aspiration of universities has been to serve as exemplary institutions. This means that, through the values they profess and the behaviors they exhibit, universities can be models for