A nonpartisan group at CUNY (City University of New York) of students, faculty and staff dedicated to fighting bigotry, antisemitism and anti-Zionism, has charged the university’s apparent investigation of two of its co-founders for tweets and positions made by the group will “chill free speech and silence a strong movement against antisemitism at CUNY.”

S.A.F.E. CUNY believes the university’s hiring of the Boston-based StoneTurn Group to conduct a discrimination investigation at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn is singling out two professors and group leaders, Jeffrey Lax and Michael Goldstein.

“All our communications are done by the organization,” Avraham Goldstein, a S.A.F.E. CUNY board member and professor at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, told the Jewish Link. “We have 300 members. If you think these tweets discriminatory they should go after the whole organization.”

The tweets and complaints raise objections to the appointment of Lili Shi, an assistant communication professor and supporter of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel to a committee charged with hiring a diversity equity inclusion (DEI) officer at the college to oversee antisemitism.

The committee is being formed as a result of a finding the previous year by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that Kingsborough, its Progressive Faculty Caucus and staff union had engaged in a pattern of discrimination against observant and Zionist Jews.

On Aug. 16, 2022 Lax filed a discrimination, retaliation and hostile work environment complaint against Kingsborough President Claudia Schrader over Shi’s appointment. On Sept. 19, Shi filed a complaint with Kingsborough’s chief diversity officer Michael Valente alleging she experienced “targeted cyberbullying” by Lax and asserted “a case of race and gender discrimination” and her “vulnerability as an immigrant” under the university’s Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination policy.

The complaint stems from the use of the phrase “Jew hate” in describing objections to Shi’s appointment.

Lax withdrew his complaint after StoneTurn “was assigned to investigate me for the very things I complained about in that August 16th email,” he wrote in one of a series of emails between himself and university, college and StoneTurn officials, S.A.F.E. CUNY shared with the Jewish Link.

In a Feb. 26 email to StoneTurn CEO Brian Wilson from S.A.F.E. CUNY, the organization called the investigation “a travesty that CUNY places purveyors of antisemitic hate speech in leadership positions dedicated to achieving diversity, equity and inclusion at CUNY.”

BDS is considered an antisemitic movement by 35 states including New York and New Jersey, and by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of Congress.

“CUNY does not comment on confidential personnel matters,” said a university spokesperson in an emailed statement.

A Nov. 22 email from Lax to CUNY Senior Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs Derek Davis noted: “From your email to Prof. Shi on which I was copied, though vague, it sounds like I am now under investigation for complaining formally and informally about assigning a BDS advocate to a committee charged with addressing the antisemitism problem on our campus. Significantly, it appears that this complaint was made against me approximately one month after my complaint was made on August 16.”

Lax charged in the email that such an action appeared to be discriminatory, asking, “Am I being investigated for complaining about BDS advocates being unfairly placed on a committee meant to hire someone to protect Jews, and for saying that I believe this to be antisemitic?” He called any such action “punitive” and “retaliatory” and pointed out he never had any personal interaction with Shi and had repeatedly asked for a mutually agreed upon investigator who isn’t paid by “by the very people he/she is investigating.” Lax offered to pay half the cost of the neutral investigator.

Responding on Jan. 24 to an email from David Holley, a partner in StoneTurn, Lax cited several items that have led him to believe he is under investigation. “While I take very serious issue with a number of items therein, I want to focus on one absolutely stunning admission you make — your concession that your investigation into me ‘stems from acts that commenced on or around August 16, 2022,’” wrote Lax.

He noted that was also the date he had filed a complaint with CUNY over Shi’s involvement with hiring a DEI officer. Lax said he would be referring current and future communications to his attorneys.

Lax added: “In my nearly 25 years as an attorney — many of which involved practice or scholarly work connected to Title VII discrimination — your admission that your investigation stems from the very day that I filed my discrimination complaint (and that it focuses on topics that I directly pointed to in my 8/16 complaint), is the closest I have ever come to hearing anyone say, ‘I was asked to retaliate against you for the discrimination complaint that you made, and I am complying.’”

Avraham Goldstein, an émigré from the former Soviet Union, said at this time it is “prudent” for Michael Goldstein and Lax not to appear in “the interrogation” as requested unless the university makes clear whether they are targets of the investigation or appearing as witnesses.

“We still don’t know in what capacity they are being investigated,” said Avraham Goldstein. “It is not stated clearly, but it seems clear it has something to do with those two tweets, but who knows who tweeted them since the tweets were posted by S.A.F.E. CUNY?”

By Debra Rubin