Jewish student sues Columbia, says faculty pushed her to violate Sabbath, bullied her out of program
Mackenzie Forrest is suing Columbia University, alleging faculty subjected her to anti-Semitic discrimination.
The lawsuit comes as Columbia has experienced numerous other anti-Semitic incidents and has been accused of being home to an ‘environment of pervasive antisemitism.’
A Jewish student at Columbia University is suing the school over alleged anti-Semitism that she faced.
The Lawfare Project, which describes itself as “a global network of legal professionals that contribute our skills, time and expertise to defending the civil and human rights of the Jewish people,” has sued Columbia University this February at the behest of Jewish student Mackenzie Forrest, claiming she faced anti-Semitic discrimination that drove her out of the Dialectical Behavioral Training (DBT) program at the Columbia School of Social Work (CSSW), according to the Jewish Journal.
A press release from The Lawfare Project states that “Mackenzie’s initial antisemitic encounter with faculty occurred when her request for accommodation for her Sabbath observance was met with resistance, and only begrudgingly provided after significant pressure was placed on her to forgo it.”
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DBT program director André Ivanoff took issue with Forrest’s religious accommodation appeal to refrain from work on Friday evening and Saturday so she could observe the Jewish Sabbath (or Shabbat), telling Forrest “that is a problem,” before adding that the request was “not a problem but an issue,” wrote the Jewish Journal.
At one point, Ivanoff tried to push Forrest to forego her religious observance of the Sabbath so she could join a DBT weekend workshop, writing to her: “I think you need a weekend long dispensation from your rabbi to attend this educational work and to participate fully including using computer media etc. etc. to complete this important work,” the Journal added.
The Lawfare Project’s press release also states that Forrest was denied accommodations to attend classes online when she felt unsafe due to the campus “devolv[ing] into a cauldron of antisemitism” following Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack against Israel, even though “that accommodation is routinely granted to other students.”
The lawsuit states that CSSW had “previously allowed other students to attend certain classes online and . . . ultimately allowed all students to attend classes online on December 6, 2023, the day of a scheduled ‘teach-in’ in support of Hamas,” and that Elizabeth Creel, Forrest’s advisor at CSSW, told her she “is the only person feeling unsafe” at the school and called her plea to do classes online “unreasonable,” as related by the Jewish Journal.
The lawsuit also alleged that CSSW fabricated excuses to make Forrest seem like a poor student despite her stellar record and told her she would receive a failing grade if she did not leave the DBT program, following which Forrest decided to quit the program, wrote the Journal.
When reached to for comment, The Lawfare Project shared a statement from the group’s Director of Litigation, Ziporah Reich, which also appeared on The Lawfare Project’s press release: “The vitriolic and antisemitic environment at Columbia to which Jewish students like Mackenzie have been subjected is utterly indefensible. Mackenzie’s right to an education in an environment where she feels physically safe is a fundamental, non-negotiable right protected by law. The university’s refusal to provide Mackenzie with a basic accommodation to ensure her safety is not only shameful, but a dereliction of the university’s moral and legal responsibilities. Such negligence demands accountability.”
Campus Reform has previously written about several instances of anti-Semitism at Columbia University.
Shortly after the Oct. 7 massacre, a Jewish student was assaulted in front of the school’s library after he helped set up posters of the Israeli hostages that were kidnapped by Hamas, Campus Reform wrote.
[RELATED: Students across country aware of ‘hostile environment toward Jews’ on campus: study]
Campus Reform also reported this December that Columbia’s Jewish Voices for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine appeared “to still be holding unauthorized events on campus” despite “being suspended by Columbia University until the end of the semester for allegations of anti-Semitism.” The latter group had called the Oct. 7 massacre “an unprecedented historic moment for the Palestinians of Gaza,” Campus Reform said.
Recently, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce launched an investigation into the school regarding what Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) described as an “environment of pervasive antisemitism,” Campus Reform related.
Campus Reform has reached out to Columbia University, André Ivanoff, and Elizabeth Creel for comment. The article will be updated accordingly.
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