Only remote classes were held at Columbia University on Monday as protests, clashes and arrests turned the campus into a cauldron of tension and fear.
A surge in anti-Semitism, attacks and harassment has made life extremely uncomfortable for Jewish students attending universities across the country, with police arresting more than 100 protesters in Colombia late last week. Colombia became ground zero.
As President Biden denounces anti-Semitic hatred on the first night of Passover, students return to the gated Upper Manhattan campus, familiar to them from when he earned a master’s degree in journalism there. It’s hard to imagine ever feeling the need to distance yourself from someone.
I believe we are at a long-awaited turning point. Just four months ago, Harvard University President Claudine Gay and University of Pennsylvania President Liz McGill ultimately lost their jobs after failing to denounce anti-Semitism in Congressional hearings. Colombian President Minouche Shafik, who is currently under pressure following similar hearings, is cracking down on demonstrators who break the rules.
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Individuals are arrested during a pro-Palestinian protest in front of Columbia University on Monday, April 22, 2024, in New York City. (Peter Garber)
Anti-Semitic incidents have skyrocketed since Hamas terrorists committed unspeakable atrocities in launching a war with Israel on October 7. But no matter how you view this war, including the mounting civilian casualties in Gaza and widespread starvation, my sense is that more and more Americans want to wipe Israel off the map. It’s just that they’re tired of the out-of-control protests by people who want to die.
Rabbi Elie Buechler, who heads the Orthodox Union’s learning center at Columbia and its sister school, Barnard College, sent a WhatsApp message to about 300 Jewish students on Sunday that police called “extremely anti-Semitic.” and in the face of disorder does not guarantee their safety. He should remain in his home “until the reality on and around campus improves dramatically.”
“It is not our job as Jews to ensure our own safety on campus,” the rabbis wrote.
Buchler said there was some backlash as if he were advocating surrender, but it was painful for him to have to make this recommendation.
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I support free speech and the right to protest, but when pro-Palestinian protesters set up 50 tents in the middle of campus, the school issued an automatic suspension policy for those who refused police orders to leave. He warned that he would be arrested.
Initial media reports focused on one of those arrested, Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar. There is no evidence that she was treated differently than anyone else. Hirschi, a member of the anti-Israel group Apartheid Divest, told Teen Vogue that she was evicted from the $90,000-a-year Barnard dormitory and cafeteria and has no place to live or access to food. .
The Minnesota congressman said he was “very proud” of his daughter.
Mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, said he was “horrified and disgusted by the anti-Semitism on and around Columbia University’s campus.”
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In banning in-person classes, Shafiq denounced “coercive and harassing behavior” on campus. “Anti-Semitic language, like any other language used to hurt or frighten people, is unacceptable and appropriate action will be taken.”
He added that some people not connected to Colombia had “exploited” these tensions to “pursue their own objectives.”
Shafiq said he is trying to balance “students’ right to express their political views” with protecting other students “from rhetoric that amounts to harassment and discrimination.”
Chabad’s Columbia branch said some of the school’s 5,000 Jewish students were cursed by protesters who chanted “just colonization,” “go back to Europe” and “go back to Poland.”
Some demonstrators tried to burn stolen Israeli flags, and some Jewish students were splashed, according to one student’s post. Police officers were also called the KKK, and voices were heard calling for the liberation of Palestine from the rivers to the sea.
Ricky Schrott, a New York Post columnist and part-time student at Columbia University, talks about what he saw during an anti-Israel protest on campus. (FNTV/FOX News)
This is outrageous. Some of the demonstrators who tried to pitch their tents again are not only opposed to Israel, but also clearly despise Jews. That is the root of the deep-rooted prejudice that has made life unbearable for Jewish students at Columbia and other universities.
(Some Jewish students say they agree with the protesters that the death toll in the Gaza Strip is unacceptable, but I don’t see how that can be linked to calls for the destruction of Israel.)
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A student named Katie told FOX’s Martha McCallum: “It makes me sick, and it really breaks my heart to think that I’m going to school with people who have these horrible anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, anti-American beliefs. I’m torn. I’m really, really worried.” These people are allowed to be around me and my classmates, and to see my friends and people I recognize in the videos get yelled at for condoning rape and murder. That’s too worrying. ”
Columbia University student Eden Yadegar described anti-Semitism on campus during a press conference on Capitol Hill hosted by the House Education and Labor Committee leadership. (FOX News Digital/Daniel Wallace)
Katie described herself as an Iranian fleeing religious persecution in the country where the first direct bombing raid on Israel failed, and said that Columbia University’s “October 7th attack was a great and huge victory for the Palestinian people.” “We hired professors who said they were.” Professor Joseph Massad, a known martyr and anti-Semite who teaches a class on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at Columbia University, wonders how these students came to be like that. You wonder why they are being indoctrinated with such beliefs…I think this is a denial of American values. ”
The poised and passionate woman added that the ongoing challenges prompted her move off campus.
“My life as a student has completely changed. I worked my whole life to get into Columbia University. This is my dream school. “I got to listen and learn from them. And it was great for me. The whole experience was harrowing,” she said. “Frankly, I can’t wait to get out of there and never go back.”
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There will come a time when millions of people who have looked away or been silent will stand up and say enough is enough. I think we’re on the brink of that moment.
There is something about the combination of Columbia, the New York media market, the arrests, the tent cities, and the bile directed at Jewish students that tips the scales.
