Antisemitism task force reports Jewish students at Columbia University experiencing ‘isolation and pain’ on campus

A Columbia University Task Force published an inaugural report on Monday confirming that Jewish students on campus were subjected to ‘racist epithets and antisemitic tropes.’

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, Barnard College President Laura Rosenbury and Teachers College President Thomas Bailey formed the task force in November 2023 “as part of a commitment to ensuring that our campuses are safe, welcoming, and inclusive for Jewish students, faculty, and staff, and all of us.”

Members of the task force include the report’s main author, Law School Prof. David Schizer, and Business School Prof. R. Glenn Hubbard, Magda Schaler-Haynes from the Mailman School of Public Health, Law Prof. Matthew C. Waxman and Gil Zussman from the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. An additional 10 staff members from Columbia contributed to the report.

The task force committee researched the current status of antisemitism on campus and heard stories of “the isolation and pain many Jewish and Israeli Columbia affiliates have experienced in recent months,” the report noted.

“While mourning Hamas’s unspeakable atrocities on October 7, some Jewish and Israeli Columbia affiliates have been the object of racist epithets and graffiti, antisemitic tropes, and confrontational and unwelcome questions, while others have found their participation in some student groups that have nothing to do with politics to be increasingly uncomfortable.”

The report records “repeated violations of the rules on protests,” noting that protesters “have disrupted classes and events, taken over spaces in academic buildings, held unauthorized demonstrations, and used ugly language to berate individuals who were filming these protests or just walking by.”  There have also been reports of physical harm to students on campus.

The introduction of the report reads, “Jews and Israelis are not the only ones targeted in this difficult time. Heartbreak, fear and loss are widely shared experiences both on and off campus. Although our report focuses on antisemitism, our recommendations can also bolster efforts to combat Islamophobia, anti-Arab racism, and other types of bigotry.”

The report also calls for a “speaker’s corner” approach to protests that include designated areas outdoors, but not in academic buildings, libraries, dining halls or dormitories and recommends specific limits on noise amplification, banners and spacing between competing protests.

“Every Columbia affiliate should have the right to protest in these designated areas, regardless of their cause or viewpoint,” the report says.

Additionally, the report acknowledges that the university “should do more to stop unauthorized protests as they occur, using approaches that are effective but not confrontational.” Protesters should be informed that they are violating the rules and asked to leave within a specific amount of time. Anyone who remains would be required to give identification and would receive a warning and disciplinary measures.

According to the findings in the report, Columbia needs to be more thorough in investigating and adjudicating possible violations of demonstration policies that constitute hateful or incendiary speech for protected classes of people from a legal standpoint,

At Columbia University, when an individual is charged with violating the rules surrounding protests, a separate process by its University Senate is conducted, unlike most other universities. That process was not practiced once during the fall 2023 semester.

“In recent years, it has become increasingly common at Columbia to defer to a protected class’s views,” the report states. “But when some Israeli and Jewish Columbia affiliates have complained about phrases or comments in recent months, the response has been different, defending the intentions and free speech rights of the speakers. While there are important reasons to value the perspective of both the speaker and the audience, the University must be consistent in its approach.”

The report also references the House Education and Workforce Committee hearing before Congress on Dec. 5, when three other former Ivy League presidents, the University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magil, Harvard President Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) President Sally Kornbluth, did not unequivocally confirm that calls for genocide against Jews violate university rules regarding hate speech.

“Calls for genocide against the Jewish community or any other group are abhorrent, inconsistent with our values and against our rules. Incitement to violence against members of our community will not be tolerated,” the report reads.

“While we agree with this principle, the application of it should be clarified. Obviously, the chants ‘gas the Jews’ and ‘Hitler was right’ are calls to genocide, but fortunately, no one at Columbia has been shouting these phrases (though there are reports that these chants were used at another university). Rather, many of the chants at recent Columbia protests are viewed differently by different members of the Columbia community: some feel strongly that these are calls to genocide, while others feel strongly that they are not,” the report explained.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism is not referenced in the report and nor is there any clarification whether chants of “Globalize the intifada” or “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” are permissible on campus. The phrase “From the river to the sea” is viewed by many Jews as a call for the eradication of the Israeli people inside its sovereign borders.

Shai Davidai, an assistant Columbia Business School professor and advocate for Jewish students on campus, said that “while he holds those on the task force in the highest esteem, its first report missed its mark,” according to The Times of Israel.

In early October, shortly after the barbaric Hamas attack on Israel, Davidai published a video that went viral where he criticized Columbia University Egyptian-born president Shafik’s “cowardice” for allowing the proliferation of “pro-terror student organizations” on campus. He told parents that students were not safe at the prestigious New York City school.

“They were celebrating the rape of teenage girls at a music festival in the name of resistance. They were celebrating this and the president of the university is allowing these pro-terror student organizations to march on our campuses,” Davidai said in the video, adding: “It doesn’t matter if you’re Christian or Jewish or Hindu or Buddhist or atheist like myself, rape is never okay, not as an act of resistance, not as an act of revenge. Rape is never okay.”

Davidai said the Columbia 9,000-word task force report was well done and that “they’ve put a lot of work into it” but argued that it “has nothing to do with antisemitism” and noted that the words “Jew” or “Jewish” only appeared 14 times and also said the committee was “all task and no force.”

He believes that while the report delves into potential changes to policy, Columbia has a problem with enforcing its already-existing policies.

“Since mid-November, two student organizations that were suspended, with complete impunity, have continued creating these unauthorized protests,” said Davidai, referring to Columbia’s chapters of the anti-Israel groups “Students for Justice in Palestine” and “Jewish Voice for Peace.”

“The protests are where a lot of the antisemitism happens, but this report is dealing with the symptom and not the root cause.”

“Since December of last year, the university has noted that calling for genocide of Jews or any other group is against the school’s code of conduct. We don’t need 29 pages with footnotes to tell us that,” Davidai added.

“I’m so frustrated, and it depresses me,” he said. “How am I supposed to face the Jewish students who, on a weekly basis, contact me with issues and problems and things that are happening, and tell them that this task force is working so hard on policies about protests?”

ALL ISRAEL NEWS featured an interview with Tricia Miller, the director of CAMERA's Partnership of Christians and Jews, where she speaks about working with Christians and helping combat the delegitimization of Israel, particularly on college campuses in the United States. Click here to listen.