Jewish students at Columbia University say they were harassed, ostracized and, in rare cases, the victims of physical violence last school year, according to a long-awaited report by a university-wide task force on antisemitism.
The instances, drawn from 500 student testimonials released Friday, took place during “day-to-day encounters, including dorm life and social media; clubs; and the classroom.” Too often, the working group found, faculty and staff minimized students’ concerns about campus antisemitism.
“Let me be very clear,” Interim President Katrina Armstrong said in a statement. “The painful and distressing incidents of antisemitism recounted in this report are completely unacceptable.”
“This is an opportunity to acknowledge the harm that has been done and to pledge to make the changes necessary to do better,” she added.
Armstrong’s predecessor, Minouche Shafik, who resigned from that post earlier this month, launched the group in November with 14 members, tasking it with identifying “practical ways” to support Jewish students’ feelings of safety and inclusion on campus.
Since then, the task force released its first report on Columbia’s protest rules in the spring, and embarked on a series of listening sessions at each of Columbia’s colleges and the Jewish student life center. Many of the hearings occurred well before students in mid-April pitched tents on the campus lawns to protest Israel’s war in Gaza.
Friday’s 91-page report focused on Columbia students’ allegations of antisemitism and the working group’s recommendations to improve the campus climate. Among their experiences: A Jewish student after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack who had placed a mezuzah outside her dorm room said people began banging on her door at all hours of the night, insisting she defend Israel’s response; she later moved out of the dorm.
Other students reported having a necklace ripped off and being pinned against a wall while walking to their dorms on Shabbat and on their way to synagogue, or feeling excluded from apolitical extracurriculars that took a stance on the war. Some of the most egregious episodes took place on Sidechat, an anonymous online platform with a Columbia group open to only its students, where users called supporters of Israel — some by name — “the modern day Hitler” or hoped they would “die a slow death.”
The reports included those of anti-Zionist Jews, who were witnessed being verbally attacked for holding identifying signs or wearing both a star of David and a keffiyeh. One student was called “Judenrat,” “self-hating Jew,” and more for being on the side of the pro-Palestinian protesters.
Last spring, after the first night of Passover, a group of Jewish students gave speeches outside the Columbia president’s house, condemning the treatment of Jews as a monolith and Jewish pro-Palestinian protesters as “not real Jews.”
“The sheer scope and depth of the antisemitism problem at Columbia detailed in the report today, unfortunately, is not news to us,” said Brian Cohen, the executive director of Columbia Hillel in an email.
“While the report is troubling, it is, by design, a retrospective. While there are still many challenges on campus, I am heartened that since Dr. Armstrong became the Interim President, she and I have had several conversations about how to look forward — and make Columbia, once again, a campus where a robust, lively, and proud Jewish community is fully and unapologetically welcomed.”
Armstrong in her statement said work has already been underway on a number of initiatives that align with the task force’s recommendations. Those include the creation this summer of a central office to handle harassment complaints; a so-called “campus climate collaborative” to provide feedback on new and existing efforts; and a committee on public safety to make recommendations. Columbia earlier this month also revised guidelines on its code of conduct.
The task force also offered a working definition of antisemitism that extended to celebrating violence against Jews or Israelis, or discriminating against them for “real or perceived” ties to Israel.
Joseph Howley, a classics professor at Columbia, had yet to read the report Friday while preparing for the first day of classes, but warned against conflating Zionism with all Jews.
“If university leaders are really concerned about protecting Jewish students and combating antisemitism, they should remember that it’s not in anyone’s interest to impose repressive speech codes,” said Howley, who is Jewish, “and then say they’re doing so at the behest of or to protect Jews.”
The fall semester begins on Tuesday.