‘SERIOUS AND PERVASIVE’: Columbia task force details anti-Semitism at school, makes recommendations for change
Anti-Israel activists chanted messages like ‘Yes Hamas, we love you, we support your rockets too,’ and ‘We say justice you say how, burn Tel Aviv to the ground.’
‘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.…I have had people spit at me, I have had people yell at me,’ one student said.
Columbia University’s Task Force on Anti-Semitism has released its second report detailing the atmosphere of anti-Semitism on campus and recommending potential solutions.
The report, published on Aug. 30, reveals how students have faced anti-Semitism in a “wide variety of venues,” including “dorm life and social media; clubs; and the classroom.” Not only did Jewish and Israeli students face hostility from pro-Hamas demonstrators, they also frequently found that Columbia leaders did not take their complaints seriously, as the task force claims.
“The University’s ethos of concern for belonging and inclusion hasn’t applied to Jews (at least not those identifies [sic] as ‘Zionist’ or Israelis),” the report states.
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The task force claimed that the “problems we found are serious and pervasive.”
Some of the examples of anti-Semitism at Columbia include anti-Israel students using Hamas slogans such as “Yes Hamas, we love you, we support your rockets too” and “We say justice you say how, burn Tel Aviv to the ground.”
Some Jewish students faced verbal harassment. Nor were such actions limited to student activists–one professor singled out an Israeli student who previously served in the Israeli military, allegedly telling her she was a murderer for her association with the Israeli Defense Forces.
One student described his experience, saying: “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.…I have had people spit at me, I have had people yell at me.”
The anti-Semitism task force recommendations for the school to combat rising anti-Semitism include “anti-bias and inclusion trainings for students, resident advisers, resident assistants, teaching assistants, student-facing staff, and faculty,” educating teaching assistants about anti-Semitism, and establishing “a repository for best practices in anti-bias and inclusion trainings.”
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The report also calls on Columbia to adopt a “working definition of antisemitism for pedagogy and training purposes.”
The definition states that “[a]ntisemitism 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.”
Campus Reform has contacted Columbia University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
