Ignoring Columbia’s – And The Education Industry’s – Systemic Antisemitism

Three administrators were “permanently removed” from their positions at Columbia University due to their private text exchanges during a hearing on antisemitism on campus, according to the Columbia Spectator. The three administrators were Vice Dean and Chief Administrative Officer Susan Chang-Kim, Dean of Undergraduate Student Life Cristen Kromm, and Associate Dean for Student and Family Support Matthew Patashnick. Josef Sorett, the dean of Columbia College, who participated in the text exchange was not removed from his position.

All will remain employed by the university.

Columbia’s Vice Dean and Chief Administrative Officer Susan Chang-Kim was dismissive of Jewish students complaints saying it “comes from such a place of privilege… hard to hear the ‘woe is me.'”

The Congressional Education and the Workforce Committee chaired by Rep Virginia Foxx (R-NC) had released a report on the texts last week. Foxx said “Jewish students deserve better than to have harassment and threats against them dismissed as ‘privilege,’ and Jewish faculty members deserve better than to be mocked by their colleagues. These text messages once again confirm the need for serious accountability across Columbia’s campus.”

The issue goes much deeper than a private text exchange on a panel meant to deal with the issue of antisemitism. The institution itself TEACHES antisemitism, fosters Jew-hatred and whitewashes antisemitism as part of its updated curriculum.

Columbia professor Joseph Massad celebrated the barbaric October 7 massacre of people in Israel in an article on October 8th as “an innovative Palestinian resistance” as a “start of the Palestinian War of Liberation.” He called the destroyed Israeli towns where families were burned alive “Israeli settler-colonies near the Gaza boundary,” as he believes and teaches his students that ALL OF ISRAEL is illegitimate.

Massad doesn’t even believe that Jews are connected to the Jews in the Bible, as he refers to the descendants of the Biblical Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as “Palestinian Hebrews.”

Imagine a university granting tenure to someone who teaches that Black people were never slaves in America, denying their history, or that they are invaders who should be denied self-determination. They would be dismissed the second students report the grave insults.

But not when Jewish students complain.

In September 2019, Columbia invited Malaysian Prime Minster Mahathir Mohamad to speak on campus, even though he is a known Holocaust denier and declared he is a “proud antisemite.” Columbia had no need to invite this Jew-hater to come onto campus to insult the Jewish students but went out of its way to do so.

This is because the university thinks that Jews are part of the “ownership class“, to quote president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, who “want to take that ladder of opportunity away from those who do not have it,” meaning deserving under-privileged minorities.

The educational system in America has been deliberately corrupted to demand that the beleaguered minority-minority Jews be sidelined and ridiculed in favor of victims of preference, the majority-minorities of Blacks and Hispanics who deserve to have their narratives elevated.

It is the center of intersectionality – under-educated, liberal, Black women – who are consistently shown in polls to be the least knowledgeable about Jewish history such as the Holocaust. Their views and history are now educational priorities while Jewish history and basic rights are being trampled upon. By design.

Brown University may get rebuked by the government for not handling reports of antisemitism properly, as was reported on July 8, but where are the actions against Brown for infusing the curriculum with rampant antisemitism denial and classes calling to normalize and globalize Hamas?

The issue at Columbia University and the current state of education in America is not a few disparaging texts from some administrators, but a systemic denigration of Jews.