Columbia University Completely Fails Mission. And Jews

In the aftermath of the grotesque massacre by Palestinian Arab terrorists of 1,300 Israelis and taking nearly 200 hostages, the most prestigious school in the largest diaspora community in the world served warm water to allay Jewish fears.

The scale and barbarity of the crime against humanity has few parallels in modern times. Yet Minouche Shafik, President of Columbia University in New York City, could not clearly condemn the Hamas massacre. Instead she discussed her sadness of violence impacting BOTH SIDES. She led with:

“I was devastated by the horrific attack on Israel this weekend and the ensuing violence that is affecting so many people. Unfortunately, at this moment, little is certain except that the fighting and human suffering are not likely to end soon.

“I know many members of our community are being impacted in profound ways and I want to assure each of you that Columbia will provide any measure of care or comfort that we can. This is your community, and you are not alone.”

She would go on to discuss logistical support at the school for everyone.

She refused to clearly comfort Jews in the worst slaughter of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust and instead offered a generic “many people”, “many members” and general “human suffering.” She tied the attack in Israel to “ensuing violence.” By being generic like “All Lives Matter” in a moment of severe anguish, she very much made Jews feel alone and abandoned.

This same university has a professor, Joseph Massad, who celebrated the attack as the “start of the Palestinian War of Liberation.” Not a surprise when he has also stolen the entire history of the Jews by calling the Children of Israel in the Old Testament “Palestinian Hebrews.”

In September 2019, Columbia invited Malaysian Prime Minster Mahathir Mohamad to speak on campus, even though he is a known Holocaust denier and “proud antisemite.”

Shafik thinks that Columbia’s “job to educate, enlighten, and engage” students involves enlightening people by bringing antisemites onto campus, miseducating students that Jews have no history in the holy land, and engaging Jews that their torture is quite unimportant.

*Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, Columbia University President as of July 1, 2023*

It is shocking that the last president of Columbia was so moved by the killing of a single Black man, George Floyd, to internalize the “destructiveness of racism, and of anti-Black racism specifically,” that he had the university take on many new initiatives and openly support the Black Lives Matter movement, yet the current president cannot recognize the collective trauma of Jews from the butchering of 1,300 Israelis, to clearly condemn Hamas’s brutality and antisemitism, and support Jews specifically.

Marc Rowan and Jon Huntsman announced that they will stop donating to their alma mater which has become ‘unrecognizable,’ elaborating in an email “Moral relativism has fueled the university’s race to the bottom and sadly now has reached a point where remaining impartial is no longer an option.” Their university president at University of Pennsylvania had penned a letter about the Hamas slaughter which was very similar to Shafik’s tepid comments.

It is time to ask for more, much more of Columbia University. And of its alumni.

ACTION ITEM

Call Columbia University President Shafik at (212) 854-9970 “Fire the antisemitic professor Joseph Massad who incites violence and miseducates, clearly condemn Hamas, and support Jewish students whose community just experienced a trauma multiples the impact of 9/11.”

Contact Columbia alumni to stop donations and sending children to the school.

Donate to Yeshiva University, a proud Jewish and Zionist university

Donate to StandWithUs, as they fight for Jews on other college campuses