New York City Police Department officials have stated that Columbia University does not wish to have NYPD officers on campus despite anti-Semitic protests and an anti-Israel encampment that has raised security concerns for Jewish students at the start of Passover.
On Monday, all classes at Columbia University were held remotely as demonstrations, conflicts, and arrests transformed the campus into a hotbed of tension and fear. A spike in antisemitism, assaults, and harassment has made life highly uncomfortable for Jewish students at universities around the nation, and Columbia has become the epicenter after police detained more than 100 protesters there late last week.
It is difficult to believe that the gated Upper Manhattan campus, with which I am so familiar from my time there earning a master’s degree in journalism, felt compelled to keep students away as the Biden White House denounced anti-Jewish hatred leading into the first night of Passover.
I believe we have reached a long-overdue turning point. Just four months ago, Harvard President Claudine Gay and Penn President Liz Magill were unable to bring themselves to condemn antisemitism during a congressional hearing, which ultimately cost them their jobs. Columbia President Minouche Shafik, under pressure after a similar hearing, has now taken action against protesters who violate the rules.
Antisemitic occurrences have increased since Hamas terrorists committed horrific acts of brutality on October 7th by initiating the conflict against Israel. However, regardless of your opinion on the conflict, including rising civilian casualties and widespread hunger in Gaza, I sense that a growing number of Americans are simply fed up with uncontrolled demonstrations by those who would wipe Israel off the map.
Elie Buechler, a rabbi who heads the Orthodox Union’s learning center at Columbia and its sister school Barnard College, sent a WhatsApp message to approximately 300 Jewish students on Sunday stating that police had not guaranteed their safety “in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy” and that they should remain home “until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved.”
“It is not our job as Jews to ensure our own safety on campus,” the rabbi added.
Buechler faced some backlash, as if he were advocating surrender, but he stated that it pained him to have to make this recommendation.
I fully support free speech and the right to protest, but when pro-Palestinian demonstrators erected 50 tents in the heart of campus, the university warned them that they would be automatically suspended and arrested if they disobeyed police orders to leave. The initial media attention concentrated on Rep. Ilhan Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi, who was among those arrested. There is no proof that she was treated differently than anyone else. Hirsi, a member of the anti-Israel group Apartheid Divest, informed Teen Vogue that she has no place to live and no way to get food after being evicted from her $90,000-per-year Barnard dorm and dining hall. The Minnesota congresswoman stated that she is “immensely proud” of her daughter.
Former police officer and Mayor Eric Adams stated that he is “horrified and disgusted with the antisemitism at and around the Columbia University campus.”
Shafik denounced the “intimidating and harassing behavior” on campus while prohibiting in-person classes. “Anti-Semitic(sic) language, like any other language used to intimidate and frighten people, is unacceptable, and appropriate action will be taken.” She went on to say that some individuals not linked with Columbia have “exploited” these tensions “to advance their own agendas.” Shafik stated that she was attempting to “balance the rights of students to express political views” with safeguarding other students “from speech that amounts to harassment and discrimination.”
Protesters yelled “all you do is colonize,” “go back to Europe,” and “go back to Poland,” cursing at some of the school’s 5,000 Jewish students, according to the Columbia chapter of Chabad. Some protesters attempted to burn a stolen Israeli flag, while some Jewish students were splashed with water, according to a post by one student. Police officers were also referred to as the KKK, and there were chants for a free Palestine “from the river to the sea.”
This is beyond outrageous. Some of these protesters, who attempted to put up tents again, are not only opposed to Israel, but they clearly despise Jews. This is the root of the deep-seated bigotry that has made life unbearable for Jewish students at Columbia and other institutions. (There is a small number of Jewish students who claim to agree with the protesters about the unacceptable death toll in Gaza, though I don’t comprehend how they reconcile that with calls for Israel’s destruction.)
A student named Katie told FOX’s Martha MacCallum, “It’s sickening. And it really breaks my heart to believe that I attend school with individuals who hold such terrible anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, and anti-American beliefs. It’s really quite disturbing to believe that these people are allowed to be around me and my classmates and to see my friends, people I identify in these videos being screamed at that these people endorse their rape and murder. And it’s just so beyond disturbing.”
Katie, who describes herself as an Iranian who escaped religious persecution in the country that directly and unsuccessfully bombarded Israel for the first time, said Columbia has “hired professors who have said that these attacks on Oct. 7 were awesome, were great victories for the Palestinian martyrs, and who have been known to be antisemitic, and that Professor Joseph Massad teaches the class on Israeli-Palestinian conflict at Columbia. And you wonder how these students get indoctrinated with these beliefs….I believe it’s a rejection of American values.”
The woman, who was eloquent and passionate, added that the ongoing ordeal prompted her to move off-campus. “It completely changed my life as a student. I spent my entire life striving to attend Columbia. I worked hard to get in. This is my dream school. I came to hear diverse viewpoints and learn from them. However, it has made the entire experience miserable,” she said. “Quite honestly, I can’t wait to get out of there, and I’ll never go back.”
There comes a time when millions who had looked away or remained silent rise up and say enough. I believe we are approaching that point. There is something about the combination of Columbia, the New York media market, the arrests, the tent city, and the venom directed at Jewish students that has tipped the scales.
