The congressional hearing at which the presidents of elite universities testified that calls for the genocide of Jews were dependent on context has become infamous.
The list of grievances surrounding that notorious hearing is extensive, but one in particular bears highlighting – the way Columbia University, my own alma mater, emerged practically unscathed, despite being widely acknowledged as one of the national hot spots of campus antisemitism, being under a federal civil rights probe for antisemitic hostility, and being home to one hateful incident after another, every week since October 7.
Other observers, including The New York Times, have also noted Columbia’s disappearance from the post-October 7 spotlight.
Antisemitism on Columbia's campus
The university garnered national attention in the immediate aftermath of the attack, after a Jewish student was violently assaulted by a pro-Palestine student for hanging hostage posters amid a wave of hostile anti-Israel campus activity; and again in late November, when the administration temporarily banned the school’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), citing a wave of unauthorized and disruptive protests.
However, Columbia then faded from the limelight in December, overshadowed by the pathetic hearing performances of other Ivy League presidents and the weeks-long dramatics of their graceless resignations.
Columbia students and alumni alike understand that this is certainly not for a lack of ongoing extremely concerning activity on campus.
Quite to the contrary, Jewish students and alumni keenly understand the depths of the antisemitic rot at the university, where virulent anti-Jewish hate thinly masquerading as criticism of the Jewish state has long been given a platform – and has only intensified since the October massacre, even as its peer schools took the heat. In fact, the lack of ongoing national attention on Columbia is not only troubling, it is simply dangerous, leaving blatant antisemitism, textbook calls for genocide, and outright blood libels to fester, while the university’s beleaguered Jewish students are left increasingly unsafe.
Just take this past week, when the school was roiled by fervent unrest after members of SJP and JVP claimed that they were attacked with “skunk spray” – which they described as an “Israeli chemical weapon” deployed by IDF soldiers – during an unauthorized on-campus demonstration.
Never mind, of course, that both the university and the New York Police Department (NYPD) investigated these allegations, which they treated as serious claims that would have warranted arrests and hate crime charges, yet found no concrete evidence of any such attack.(This didn’t stop the alleged “skunk spray” victims from taking to social media to start a GoFundMe for “community members facing unimaginable grief,” the proceeds of which will help pay for their “rent, groceries, and other bills,” and which has currently raised over $18,000.) The entirely uncorroborated nature of the claims also didn’t stop students from plastering the campus with antisemitic flyers, featuring a skunk with a Star of David in the blue-and-white colors of the Israeli flag and bearing an overt resemblance to Nazi-era propaganda posters.Naturally, when the New York Post asked the university about the origins of the poster and the disciplinary consequences for its creators, they refused to answer any questions on the matter.
But the posters are only the tip of the iceberg that is the dire state of Columbia’s campus – the wild allegations also kicked off a wave of notably disturbing anti-Israel protests that took place in the streets in front of the university after the administration limited students from protesting in front of campus buildings without proper authorization. At a huge protest last Friday, attended by hundreds of people and featuring chants like “NYPD, KKK, IDF, they’re all the same” and “It is right to rebel! NYPD, burn in hell!” nine protesters were arrested after clashing with the police.
Disturbing stories continue to emerge from that protest, including of a Jewish student wearing a kippah and Israeli flag t-shirt being shoved, slammed against the wall, and harassed by protesters who screamed at him to “Keep fucking running”; a woman holding up a missing poster for the hostages being swarmed by demonstrators who ripped the poster out of her hands; and a truck driving around campus bearing enormous signs reading “Daily Reminder: Israel Steals Palestinian Organs” and “Israel is the New Nazi Germany.”
THE PROTESTS were so high-octane that even The New York Times, which has been ignoring the state of campus for months, eventually ran a story. Unsurprisingly, however, the piece focused mostly on criticisms from pro-Palestinian students who say their free speech is being limited by the administration, paying no heed to the widely circulated antisemitic incidents emerging from these protests.
Despite the apparent limitations on their speech, these protesters have already taken to social media to announce plans for more upcoming unauthorized demonstrations on campus, which are sure to draw more police and feature more antisemitic hostility.
The lack of widespread attention paid to the ongoing problems at Columbia is a disgrace, and it speaks to a sad reality about the extent to which campus antisemitism has been normalized and tolerated.
How is it possible that Nazi-style propaganda hangs in libraries and the administration refuses to intervene?
How can these hateful groups, many of which are run by citizens of Arab countries who import their homegrown prejudices while in the United States on student visas, be allowed to terrorize the campus with prejudice and blood libel without facing serious consequences from the administration?
How can our society be so hardened to the pain and anxieties of Jewish students at these schools that it no longer bats an eye when they are harassed, assaulted, and made to feel unsafe on the campus they call home?
We owe it to the Jewish students at Columbia – both present and future – to bear witness to this noxious culture of fear and continue pressuring this institution to make the widespread reforms it so desperately needs.
These problems might be limited now to the Jews of Columbia University, but anyone who understands the history of antisemitism knows that anti-Jewish hate is always a canary in a coal mine, speaking to deeper and more insidious issues with which society will eventually be forced to contend. In other words, Columbia’s problems will eventually be everyone’s problems, so it’s long past time that we all started paying close and urgent attention.
The writer is a prominent Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, and star of an Emmy-nominated Netflix original series, Skin Decision: Before and After.