A federal lawsuit alleging Jewish and Israeli students at Columbia University and Barnard College have been subjected to “egregious and ongoing antisemitism” has been filed charging the university has ignored its own policies and used a double standard in addressing Jewish hatred.
The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York by the New York law firm of Kasowitz Benson Torres on behalf of StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice (SCLJ), Students Against Antisemitism, Inc., and five named students.
The lawsuit also lists 10 anonymous Jewish students — two of whom are also Israeli — who are members of SCLJ. Students named in the suit are Miles Rubin, Daniella Symonds, Erin McNulty, Noah Miller and Valerie Gerstein.
“Columbia refuses to enforce its policies or protect Jewish and Israeli members of the campus community,” said SCLJ Director of Legal Justice Yael Lerman. “Columbia has created a pervasively hostile campus environment in which antisemitic activists act with impunity, knowing that there will be no real repercussions for their violations of campus policies.” She added the aim of the lawsuit was to hold the university accountable under Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act for its “blatant failures to live up to their obligations under federal law.”
StandWithUs is a non-partisan pro-Israel organization dedicated to combating antisemitism, especially on college campuses.
The 114-page complaint additionally alleges Columbia breached its contractual relationship with the Jewish students who paid tuition with the expectation that policies regarding harassment, intimidation and discrimination would be followed.
“Columbia’s abject failure and deliberate refusal to lift a finger to stop and deter this outrageous antisemitic conduct and discipline the students and faculty who perpetrate it” has left Jewish students fearful of the unsafe environment on campus in which Jewish and Israeli students have been physically and verbally attacked, according to the lawsuit.
“Columbia must now be compelled to implement institutional, far-reaching, and concrete remedial measures,” reads the complaint. “Columbia must also pay damages to plaintiffs — who have been robbed of their college and graduate school experience — to compensate them for the hostility they have been forced to endure as a consequence of Columbia’s unlawful conduct.”
In November, the federal Department of Education opened an investigation of Columbia for violating VI of the Civil Rights Act for allowing antisemitic and anti-Muslim harassment. Last month the House Education Committee announced it is investigating the school over its handling of antisemitism.
The university suspended Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace earlier this school year for their threatening rhetoric and intimidation and unauthorized events.
This is the second lawsuit filed against Columbia recently over its alleged antisemitism. A suit filed on behalf of Mackenzie Forrest, an Orthodox graduate student in a specialized program in the Ivy league university’s school of social work, charged Columbia “unleashed a retaliatory campaign,” and kicked her out of the program for requesting Sabbath and safety accommodations.
University spokesperson Samantha Slater previously said in a statement to The Jewish Link that the university cannot comment on litigation but “President Minouche Shafik has repeatedly said: ‘We will not tolerate antisemitic actions and are moving forcefully against antisemitic threats, images, and other violations as they are reported, and we will continue to provide additional resources to protect our campuses.’”
To address the root causes of the antisemitism, she wrote she had formed a Task Force on Antisemitism “to enhance our ability to address this ancient, but terribly resilient, form of hatred. In the coming months, the task force will identify practical ways to enhance support for all members of the Columbia, Barnard and Teachers College communities, particularly our Jewish students. Longer term, it will recommend changes related to academic and extracurricular offerings and administrative policies.”
Incidents cited in the latest complaint include the assault of five Israeli students exiting Butler Library who saw another student tearing down hostage posters they had hung earlier that day. When they asked for the return of the posters they were cursed at, attacked with a stick, one student was punched and another suffered a broken finger and head lacerations. The incident was reported to Columbia and the students advised to stay off campus for the “National Day of Resistance.” Columbia police arrested and charged the assailant with assault.
During another pro-Palestinian demonstration in front of Low Library, where anti-Israel and antisemitic slogans were being chanted in English and Arabic, several students advanced on pro-Israel students, blocking them with Palestinian flags. Columbia took no action against them.
A protest organizer, who was previously reported to the administration for his intimidation of Jewish students, shouted through a megaphone at Israel supporters during a pro-Palestinian demonstration that university officials acknowledged was unsanctioned and organized by an unrecognized student group, a violation of university policy. Yet no action was taken to halt the protest or sanction the students involved.
Also cited was the university’s “deliberate indifference” in stark contrast to its “swift and decisive actions” to act when the victims aren’t Jewish or Israeli, adding, “This unlawful double standard has created and exacerbated the discrimination and harassment that Jewish and Israeli students are forced to endure at Columbia.”
The university has in the past disciplined faculty for using profanity or racist statements yet fails to allegedly do so when the statements are antisemitic. The suit notes that no action has been taken against faculty who have expressed antisemitic views, endorsed violence against Jews and called for Israel’s violent destruction.
Among the complaint’s other allegations are that required freshman Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) training to combat discrimination and bias “conspicuously” omits antisemitism, and the first year orientation at its school of social work slanders Jews as “oppressors.”
It additionally criticized Shafik for downplaying antisemitism, enabling the climate of hatred against Jews to thrive, including waiting two days after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas to finally release a statement urging faculty “to bring clarity to this painful moment,” but failing to say anything about terrorism or antisemitism. At a meeting with Jewish students she allegedly expressed doubt Columbia could address antisemitism and instead suggested the university could prepare incoming students to be “more resilient to the hostile campus environment.”
The suit also cites the Columbia’s public safety department’s failure to adequately protect Jewish students, citing such incidents as a Jewish student being informed by police at a Students for Justice in Palestine rally that because they couldn’t ensure Jewish students’ safety they should disperse for their own protection. In another instance, one of the suing students was shoved by another student wearing a keffiyeh during a protest and was told by public safety to file an official report. After doing so, the student was told there was nothing public safety could do.
The suit also criticized the awarding of a Multicultural Graduation Cord to Lizzy George-Griffin, president of the LionLez club — an “event-based, social club designed for queer and non-binary people —” who in 2020, in an emailed invite to a screening of “Free Palestine,” disinvited Zionists, “all of whom are white supremacists.” In the same invite she also said the Holocaust “wasn’t special.” The cord is awarded for “an outstanding commitment to diversity, social justice, and multiculturalism through Multicultural Affairs, campus leadership, community involvement, academic endeavors, and/or personal dedication.”
Debra Rubin has had a long career in journalism writing for secular weekly and daily newspapers and Jewish publications. She most recently served as Middlesex/Monmouth bureau chief for the New Jersey Jewish News. She also worked with the media at several nonprofits, including serving as assistant public relations director of HIAS and assistant director of media relations at Yeshiva University.
