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Jewish students at Columbia were stalked, spit on and harassed, university report finds
By
Jessica Gould
Published Aug 30, 2024
Modified Sep 2, 2024
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Spencer Platt/Getty Images
By
Jessica Gould
Published Aug 30, 2024
Modified Sep 2, 2024
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Hundreds of Jewish students at Columbia University say they faced hate, exclusion and discrimination on campus over the past academic year, according to a new report released Friday featuring student accounts that a university task force described as “heartbreaking.”
“The painful and distressing incidents of antisemitism recounted in this report are completely unacceptable. They are antithetical to our values and go against the principles of open inquiry, tolerance, and inclusivity that define us," interim Columbia President Katrina Armstrong said in a statement.
The report comes as students return to campus for the fall semester. The university’s former president, Minouche Shafik, resigned two weeks ago following widespread criticism for her handling of recurring protests from pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli students. Universities across the country, including Columbia, are bracing for more demonstrations in the coming months as Israel’s war in Gaza nears a full year.
The university convened the task force after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel “to address the harmful impact of rising antisemitism on Columbia’s Jewish community.” The task force, made up of 14 professors, said all students were invited to speak at its 20 listening sessions, though the report focuses mostly on the experiences of Jewish students.
While the authors of the 90-page report said many of the antisemitic incidents began before pro-Palestinian students set up encampments on the lawn in April, they said those incidents became more “extreme” during that period, which culminated in the occupation of Hamilton Hall in May and mass arrests by the NYPD.
The task force recommended anti-bias training for students and staff, and in-person workshops on anti-semitism and Islamophobia. Armstrong said steps to address the problems are already underway, including an overhaul of university rules and safety procedures.
The report recounts experiences described by nearly 500 students, including:
- Hateful speech and actions on campus: Jewish and Israeli students talked about being spit on and stalked. One spoke of being called a “lover of genocide.”
- Jewish students who joined the pro-Palestinian encampment on campus endured antisemitism, according to the report. “A Jewish student who had been on the pro-Palestine side of protests was called ‘Judenrat,’ ‘token Jew,’ ‘self-hating Jew,’ ‘disgrace,’ and more.”
- Exclusion from clubs: A student who wanted to join an LGBTQ+ group shared a flier that said “Zionists aren’t invited.” Some students said they also felt unwelcome in clubs that had signed on to calls to divest from Israel.
- Intimidation in classrooms: “A student who was writing a thesis on Israeli artists reported that each time that student made a presentation in their senior thesis seminar, the thesis seminar leader would say, ‘I hate Israel.”
- Insufficient responses from the university: Some administrators steered students subjected to antisemitism toward mental health counseling, the report said. Other students said administrators minimized their concerns.
“The problems we found are serious and pervasive,” the authors of the report wrote. “The experiences of these students demonstrated that there is an urgent need to reshape everyday social norms across the campuses of Columbia University.”
Pro-Palestinian student groups did not immediately respond to inquiries. Gothamist has previously reported on incidents targeting pro-Palestinian students, including doxxing trucks that smeared students' names around upper Manhattan and demonstrators who were sprayed with a foul-smelling substance which officials later concluded was a legal, non-toxic novelty item.
The task force, after initially hesitating to define antisemitism, offered a definition in the report: “Antisemitism is prejudice, discrimination, hate, or violence directed at Jews, including Jewish Israelis. Antisemitism can manifest in a range of ways, including as ethnic slurs, epithets, and caricatures; stereotypes; antisemitic tropes and symbols; Holocaust denial; targeting Jews or Israelis for violence or celebrating violence against them; exclusion or discrimination based on Jewish identity or ancestry or real or perceived ties to Israel; and certain double standards applied to Israel.”
This article was updated with new information about a substance sprayed on participants during war-related demonstrations earlier this year.
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Jessica Gould
Jessica is the education reporter for WNYC and Gothamist. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Jessica reported on the shutdown and reopening of the nation’s largest school system, highlighting the unprecedented impacts on learning, health and mental health for students, staff and families. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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