Columbia University Administrators Resign Over Antisemitism Scandal

Three Columbia University administrators who took turns exchanging text messages which, according to school president Minouche Shafik, “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes,” have resigned from their jobs in disgrace.

As first reported by the Washington Free Beacon in a bombshell report, Columbia administrators Susan Chang-Kim, Cristen Kromm, Matthew Patashnick, and Josef Sorett, who is the college’s dean, sent a series of text messages which denounced Jews as “privileged” and venal and spurned widespread Jewish concerns about rising antisemitism on the campus. The remarks were exchanged amid a deluge of antisemitic incidents at the school and specifically lambasted Jewish leaders who appeared on campus as panelists to plea for help and explain the link between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.

While school officials have confirmed he resignations to multiple news outlets, the university has not issued a formal comment on the administrators’ departures. Officials outside of Columbia offered their views on the matter, however, with US Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) — chairwoman of a US House committee that is investigating the school’s handling of antisemitism — saying it is “about time.”

Foxx continued, “Actions have consequences, and Columbia should have fired all four of these deans months ago. Instead the university continues to send mixed signals, letting Columbia College Dean Josef Sorett, the highest-ranking administrator involved, slide under the radar with no real consequences … I hope that Columbia continues to sever ties with anyone who has been complicit in the antisemitism that’s overrun the campus since Oct. 7.”

The resignation of the high-level administrators came after a tumultuous year in which pro-Hamas agitators roiled the campus with illegal occupations of school property, vandalism, and alleged antisemitic hate crimes.

“F—k the Jews,” “Death to Jews,” “Jews will not defeat us,” and “From water to water, Palestine will be Arab,” students chanted on campus grounds in the weeks after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, according to a lawsuit filed by StandWithUs Legal Center for Justice (SCLJ). Faculty engaged in similar behavior. On Oct. 8, professor Joseph Massad published in Electronic Intifada an essay cheering Hamas’ atrocities, which included slaughtering children and raping women, as “awesome” and describing men who paraglided into a music festival to kill young people as “the air force of the Palestinian resistance.”

In June, the university settled a separate lawsuit which accused it of neglecting its obligation to foster a safe learning environment. The resolution of the case, first reported by Reuters, called for Columbia to hire a “Safe Passage Liaison” who will monitor protests and “walking escorts” who will accompany students whose safety is threatened around the campus. Other details of the settlement included “accommodations” for students whose academic lives are disrupted by protests and new security policies for controlling access to school property.

Columbia University president Minouche Shafik, who took office in July 2023, has recently attempted to reverse the impression that Columbia has become a sanctuary for antisemites, but many still doubt that she will deter or respond forcefully to another academic year of pro-Hamas activity on the campus, which has saddled the university with numerous scandals and damaged its once pristine reputation as one of America’s great institutions of higher learning.

“We will launch a vigorous program of antisemitism and antidiscrimination [sic] training for faculty and staff this fall, with related training for students under the auspices of university life,” she said in July. “Columbia’s leadership team recognizes this as an important moment to implement changes that will build a stronger institution as a result. I know that you all share this commitment.”

Meanwhile, Columbia’s pro-Hamas activists continue to issue extreme pronouncements. Earlier this month, Columbia Apartheid Divest, a spin-off of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), said on social media that it is “fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization” and called for “community and instruction from militants in the Global South.” SJP earlier embraced terrorism in May when it endorsed Hamas, describing the Palestinian terrorist group as “the only force materially fighting back against” Israel.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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