As pro-Palestinian students at Columbia University continued protesting the war in Gaza, the school’s Orthodox Jewish rabbi urged hundreds of Jewish students to stay home to ensure their own safety.
The White House and Mayor Adams Sunday condemned antisemitism connected to the protests.
“The events of the last few days, especially last night, have made it clear that Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy,” Rabbi Elie Beuchler wrote in a warning sent out to more than 290 students via WhatsApp.
“It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved.”
In response to growing concerns over on-campus safety, the university will allow students to study remotely while a Jewish student group said students should not leave Columbia. The NYPD plans to increase its presence around the campus.
On X.com, CNN’s Jake Tapper said Beuchler told him he sent the message “in response, he says, to ‘just horrific’ videos of ‘protesters on campus calling for Jews to be killed, just off campus Jews being yelled at to ‘go back to Poland’, text messages I’m getting constantly from Jewish students about how unsafe they feel.'”
Beuchler on Sunday confirmed he sent the message, adding, “With Passover preparations and students to attend to, at this time I will not be taking any press inquires.”
In wake of the continuing protests and concerns, university administration will allow students at all schools and programs the option of remote learning to those “who are seeking academic accommodations due to campus activity for either religious reasons or other approved disability accommodation reasons,” according to a university source.
The White House condemned antisemitic rhetoric in a statement quoted by Politico.
“While every American has the right to peaceful protest, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous — they have absolutely no place on any college campus, or anywhere in the United States of America,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement to the outlet.
The NYPD could not provide statistics on the number of antisemitic or anti-Muslim hate crimes reported to police in connection with the protests at Columbia, instead responding to the request with city-wide hate crime statistics between Jan. 1 and April 14.
Antisemitic hate crimes across the city rose from 66 to 96 so far this year compared to the same period last year. Anti-Muslim hate crimes rose from one to nine.
In a post on X.com, Mayor Adams condemned the rhetoric surrounding the protests.
“I am horrified and disgusted with the antisemitism being spewed at and around the Columbia University campus,” Adams said Sunday. “Hate has no place in our city, and I have instructed the NYPD to investigate any violation of law they receive a report about and will arrest anyone found to be breaking the law.”
At the university on Sunday, one Jewish student who received Beuchler’s text expressed fear for his safety on campus and has decided to head home for Passover early.
“Its very unsettling,” said the student, who did not want to be identified. “At the current moment right now, during the day I think it’s fine, [but] at night things get a lot more hectic.”
A pro-Palestine protester on the campus told the Daily News she believes antisemitism has “been weaponized to discredit the movement.”
“We do not believe that Jewish students should leave @Columbia,” Columbia/Barnard Hillel, a group that supports Jewish students, posted on X.com. “We do believe that the university and the city need to do more to ensure the safety of our students.”
Protests of the war in Gaza have continued in defiance of university President Minouche Shafik’s decision to call in the NYPD to clear a campus encampment and arrest more than 100 demonstrators Thursday.
Shafik’s decision has met with intense criticism, with the Columbia and Barnard chapters of the American Association of University Professors saying in a statement Friday, “We have lost confidence in our president and administration, and we pledge to fight to reclaim our university.”
In a series of X.com posts Sunday, independent reporters showed videos of a new Gaza solidarity encampment being built on campus. Students at other colleges across the nation have set up similar encampments in solidarity with Columbia.
While the campus for six months has been the site of protests by both pro-Israel an pro-Palestinian students, concerns over safety have escalated over the last several days. On Friday, a group of 97 Jewish students said they felt threatened by the protests surrounding the campus gates and asked the school administration to let them attend classes virtually.
One video posted on YouTube Wednesday shows a woman wearing a keffiyeh cursing and screaming, “We are all Hamas!” at pro-Israeli counterprotesters off-campus, while a woman wearing an Israeli flag as a cape asks a police officer, “Why don’t you arrest these people?” and yells back, “You f—ing terrorist lunatics!”
Another video, posted to X.com Friday, shows two men on 116th St., also off-campus, screaming “Never forget the 7th of October,” referring to the Hamas terror attack on Israel that led to the siege of Gaza, and vowing that the attack would happen “10,000 times.”
In a statement Sunday, Columbia referred to student safety as its “No. 1 priority.”
“Columbia students have the right to protest, but they are not allowed to disrupt campus life or harass and intimidate fellow students and members of our community,” the statement reads. “We are acting on concerns we are hearing from our Jewish students and are providing additional support and resources to ensure that our community remains safe.”
