“Based on conversations with students, we now know that some faculty members are unfortunately also creating a hostile environment toward Israelis in classrooms and are encouraging rule-breaking by student protesters.”
Columbia University’s Task Force on Antisemitism has uncovered a string of incidents of "harassment of Jewish students" on the New York City Ivy League campus, including antisemitic comments made by professors, one of which reportedly told his class to avoid mainstream news outlets because "it is owned by Jews."
The task force was formed in November following the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and rising antisemitism on campuses across the country with the aim to address the "harmful impact of rising antisemitism on Columbia's Jewish community and to ensure that protection, respect, and belonging extends to everyone." The task force conducted over 20 listening sessions and heard from around 500 students and received dozens of written appeals, Israeli paper Haaretz reported. Some of the testimony is set to be published in the coming weeks.
Task force members told the paper that Jewish students have felt "very targeted and ostracized," and that some faculty members have created "a discriminatory environment" by ways that include "moving their classes and office hours into the encampment where 'Zionists are not welcome.'"
"Based on conversations with students, we now know that some faculty members are unfortunately also creating a hostile environment toward Israelis in classrooms and are encouraging rule-breaking by student protesters," task force member Professor Gil Zussman said.
Of these faculty members, one professor reportedly encountered a Jewish-sounding surname while reading out names before an exam. The professor asked the student to explain their views on Israel’s actions in Gaza. Another professor told their class to avoid reading mainstream news as it is "owned by Jews. And yet another professor reportedly displayed a student’s email to classmates regarding a complaint about an offensive comment regarding Jews.
Professors have also encouraged students to participate in Gaza camps or pro-Palestinian protests, or conducted their classes at these sights.
"Only when we talked to the students did we realize how serious the problem is. Unfortunately, there are still many faculty members who do not believe that there is antisemitism on campus, and some claim that antisemitism is being weaponized to protect pro-Israel views. We can put it this way: have there been antisemitic incidents? Yes, absolutely. Are there antisemitic faculty and students? Yes, there are some. Are all of them antisemitic? Absolutely not," co-chair Professor David M Schizer said.
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