Columbia task force finds ‘troubling’ pattern of behavior toward Jewish students on campus

(CNN) — In a new report from Columbia University’s antisemitism task force, a student described the situation on campus following the October 7 attacks in Israel.

“People that you sat in class with, you had drinks with, you had lunch and dinner with, the next day they say they hope your entire family dies,” the report read.

The testimony is just one example in a deluge collected as part of an overall report that incorporated testimonies of “hundreds” of Jewish and Israeli students. It led the task force to find what it called “a pattern of behavior toward Jewish and Israeli students that is troubling and violates norms of behavior and speech that are central to the values of our university.”

“These student stories are heartbreaking, and make clear that the University has an obligation to act,” the report stated.

Students share their experiences

Another example cited by the task force focused on the period immediately after October 7.

“One student who had moved into her dorm room in September, told us she placed a mezuzah on her doorway as required by ritual law, as traditional Jews have done for centuries. In October, people began banging on her door at all hours of the night, demanding she explain Israel’s actions. She was forced to move out of the dorm,” the report read.

In another instance, “One student described an altercation in which a woman was verbally attacked because she was holding a sign saying she was both Jewish and anti-Zionist. A Jewish student who had been on the pro-Palestine side of protests was called ‘Judenrat,’ ‘token Jew,’ ‘self-hating Jew,’ ‘disgrace,’ and more. Another recounted seeing a female student wearing both a star of David and a keffiyeh being verbally assaulted.”

In one instance in a classroom, the report describes the testimony of an Israeli female student who previously served in the IDF.

In this class, “The IDF was portrayed as an ‘army of murderers.’ The faculty member reportedly told the student that as a former IDF member, she too should be considered a murderer,” the report read.

“Others described having been denied membership or being forced to quit student groups that were supposed to be nonpolitical,” according to the report. “A student shared they had been ‘de facto kicked out’ of student organizations based on the polarizing messaging these organizations displayed, and another said there was a feeling of having to ‘constantly qualify who we are’ in order to participate in organizations.”

While Columbia gained national attention for the encampment led protests in spring 2024, the majority of the experiences in the report came “before the establishment of the encampments.”

‘Failure to listen’

The second portion of the report focused on the systems and processes in place for students to report cases of discrimination.

“Students consistently reported a failure to listen on the part of administrators as well as students or a quick dismissal deployed in the service of closing down the possibility of discussion or argument,” the report read.

For example, “We often heard in the listening sessions about students being told, when they pushed back against a claim they suggested was antisemitic, that ‘that isn’t our intent, and the way it is impacting you is wrong.’ We heard anecdotes about students saying they don’t mean ‘all Jews,’ in an effort to downplay accusations of antisemitic generalizations,” the report read.

In other cases, when students complained about antisemitism, some school administrators tried to steer them to mental health counseling, the report read. “While mental health services should be available to anyone who wants or needs them, administrators should not medicalize a student experience of discrimination in lieu of addressing it,” it continued.

Based on the testified student experiences and their reported inability to communicate cases of discrimination to the administration effectively, the report concluded the “University to be failing at its basic mission” to provide an inclusive atmosphere where everyone feels “they are valued as full members of the community, that they truly belong.”

As part of a statement, interim president Katrina Armstrong said she is grateful to the task force on antisemitism and wrote, “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.”

Minouche Shafik, the previous university president who presided over the campus during the testimonial period reported by students, resigned earlier in August, months after protests over the Israel-Hamas war.

More work to do

Professor Ester Fuchs, co-chair of the antisemitism task force, told CNN there were a lot of “strong opinions” in building the report, but “people did a lot of work.”

“It becomes hard to deny reality after reading this report,” she said.

While the report was produced by the antisemitism task force, Fuchs previously told CNN, “We are hoping that our recommendations will be relevant and be used to deal with all students who are feeling unsafe or discriminated against.”

“The president tried to constitute an Islamophobia task force and could not find faculty to be on it,” she said. “We would’ve preferred to have an Islamophobia task force right next to us doing the work with us because this is a broader issue,” she added.

In response, a Columbia University official told CNN in June they did not get enough professor buy-in. “There was a will, but no willingness from those who were calling for it,” the official wrote at the time.

However, Rashid Khalidi, professor of modern Arab studies, told CNN, “After the administration lost the confidence of most of the faculty because of their blatant partisanship, they belatedly tried to create an ‘Islamophobia’ fig leaf to pretend they were ‘balanced.’” The Arts and Sciences faculty later voted no confidence in the president by a 2/3 majority.

Khalidi also told CNN while Islamophobia on campus “was an issue” during this past school year, he said the problem was more an “acute bias of the administration from the outset of the war against student activism in opposition to the war, activism that probably represented a majority of Columbia undergrads, including many students who were Jewish, as well as students represented by dozens of student organizations.”

The report was the second from Columbia’s antisemitism task force. A “later report” is expected to analyze specific challenges in the classroom.

“We’re under no illusion that a report from the antisemitism task force is enough when you’re really asking for a broad based change,” but “we’re not getting up from this table,” Fuchs told CNN Friday.

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