“We are returning to our campus with a determination to embrace our identities as Jews or allies of the Jewish people and will continue our support for the state of Israel. We feel empowered,” Amy Werman, from Columbia’s School of Social Work, told the JC as more than 20 faculty members arrived in Israel last week for an unofficial visit organised by Israel Destination, which has brought professors from ten leading universities (including Ivy League schools) to the country since Hamas’s October 7 massacre of 1,200 people.
In the aftermath of October 7, anti-Israel and anti-Jew protests spread on campuses across the United States, with students setting up tent encampments, including at Columbia.
In late April the demonstrations culminated in protesters storming Hamilton Hall and barricading themselves inside the compound until they were evacuated by police.
Of the 46 people arrested for illegally occupying the building, 31 were released without charge by Manhattan District attorney Alvin Bragg, who suggested they would be dealt with internally by the Columbia administration.
“Things will likely get worse in the fall because there were no repercussions for those who were part of the encampments,” Joel Brooks, assistant professor of pediatrics in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia, told the JC.
“Charges were dropped in most cases. The university really has not done anything to punish students who threatened others. For that reason, I feel that they will be emboldened to do this again,” he said.
Brooks described an extremely challenging environment full of hostility to Jews. “The students at the encampment made blatant antisemitic claims, threatened Jews, effectively barred them from campus by preventing them from attending classes and threatening them,” he said.
“I was at a rally off campus and students came up to me and stated they identified with Hamas.
"It was an eye-opening experience. I asked myself whether they even understood that they stood with terrorists, rapists, murderers. And to do it so proudly, it shocked me.”
One Columbia faculty member who was part of the delegation asked to remain anonymous over fear of being targeted upon her return.
“We were told that we were either privileged or that it’s ridiculous, that antisemitism doesn’t exist and that we need mental health counselling,” she said.
Earlier this month, Columbia announced that three senior administrators had been permanently removed after they mocked the surge of Jew-hatred on campus.
With protesters demanding that Columbia boycott Israeli universities and scholars, Werman said that one of the objectives of the trip was to show support for Israeli academics.
“We are here, we will have conferences with them, we will work on papers together, collaborate and conduct joint research. We are here to strengthen that connection,” Werman said.
For Michelle Love, a staff physician at Columbia University’s Medical Center Student Health Service, visiting the Shalom Hartman Institute was one of the highlights of her visit. “I enjoyed being able to hear people with different opinions, who were still able to maintain dialogue, which I think we have lost a lot in the US and in the diaspora,” Love told the JC.
“I agree with the right to protest and free speech. Those are American values. But if I throw a fist, my right ends before it hits your nose.
"The university has to balance these rights and they are not doing a good job with that,” she said. Most members of the delegation were wearing Star of David necklaces, which Love said she will not remove upon her return to Columbia. “I want people to know that I’m Jewish and that I am proud of it,” she added.
