Can a Federal Court Stop Antisemitism at Columbia?

I joined a lawsuit against my school because campus leaders have allowed a hostile climate for Jews

By Michael Gross. 

"Will the antisemitism at Columbia University ever end? That was the question after anti-Israel protesters set up yet another shanty encampment on campus in June. As a Jewish nursing student who’s seen the hate every day since Oct. 7, I believe the only way to get meaningful change is to sue my school. Columbia’s leaders won’t do enough to stop antisemitism, so a federal court must force a change.

I went public with my lawsuit on June 17, when my lawyers at Kasowitz Benson Torres filed an amended complaint in Manhattan’s federal court. They did so on behalf of 47 Columbia and Barnard students and recent graduates. When the suit was initially filed in February, I was an anonymous member of StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice.

In the intervening months, the situation on campus has become immeasurably worse. I want to show that real people are suffering from the hatred that has overrun Columbia University since Hamas’s rampage in Israel.

After I attended a vigil last fall for the victims, many fellow students stopped talking to me. I was routinely called a murderer, and even a Nazi, as I walked to class. I received an anonymous death threat on social media. I usually remained in my off-campus apartment, skipping class because I would have had to walk past—or through—groups of students advocating violence against Jews. I canceled a job interview on campus because I feared for my safety. For much of the fall semester, I stayed away from New York City and took classes virtually.

When I returned for the spring semester, things got worse. While the media has fixated on the encampments and the student takeover of Hamilton Hall, the hatred hasn’t been limited to those areas. There have been constant “teach-ins” where students and outside organizers rail against Israel while praising Hamas. One teach-in, titled “Contextualizing the Humanitarian Collapse in Palestine,” denied that terrorism is a crime and described suicide bombings as “direct-action protests.” Twice a month there is a “glory to our martyrs vigil” on the medical campus.

Days before Passover, while walking through campus to work, I encountered a massive protest filled with calls for violence against Jews such as “intifada,” “from the river to the sea” and “by any means necessary.” Demonstrators also chanted “Zionists off campus now.” After Oct. 7, I stopped wearing my Star of David necklace for fear of assault, yet I had put it on that afternoon to connect with an Orthodox Jewish patient in the hospital. After seeing the crowd, I walked back home, where I took off the necklace and then took an alternative route to work.

I pay good money to attend Columbia, so I’ve complained to campus leaders about the climate of fear. In October I sent an email to 12 administrators and program directors in which I described the hate directed my way. No one responded. When I met with my program’s social worker in November, she thanked me for sharing my perspective while asserting that I was “the only Jewish student” who had raised concerns—a claim I knew was false.

When I met with the nursing school’s dean of student affairs after Thanksgiving, she questioned whether other Jews who had raised concerns were actually students. She defended the students harassing Jews on the grounds of “free speech.” In the spring, another dean dismissed my concerns of antisemitism as a nonissue and said I was describing a “lack of civility” but not antisemitism.

No wonder the situation at Columbia has deteriorated. Passive and morally confused leaders have tacitly encouraged the threats of violence against Jewish students. By failing to oppose antisemitism from the outset, they’ve fostered the creation of a de facto no-go zone for Jews. The 2023-24 school year is over, but antisemitism remains rampant in the summer semester, and I expect it to become worse in the fall. If students are setting up encampments when the campus is less busy, they are unlikely to back down when it is bustling.

Columbia’s leaders can’t be trusted to do the right thing. Their decision to break up the first encampment and recapture Hamilton Hall was too little, too late. Our lawsuit seeks injunctive relief and monetary damages for violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The courts should compel Columbia to enforce its policies and protect Jewish students—far beyond merely punishing antisemites after the fact. If the federal courts don’t intervene, then antisemitism will continue to control Columbia and endanger Jewish students.

Mr. Gross is a doctoral student at Columbia University School of Nursing."