Columbia’s Task Force on Anti-Semitism Says School Has Failed to End Hatred Against Jewish Students

In a new report released as students return to campus, a Columbia University task force on anti-Semitism found that the school has failed to end hate on campus and has not addressed the concerns of Jewish students “with the standards of civility, respect and fairness that it promises,” calling the problem “serious” and “pervasive.”

Additionally, the New York school’s faculty task force recommends a new definition of anti-Jewish hatred, concluding, in part, that “celebrating violence against Jews or Israelis and discriminating against them because of their ties to Israel” constitutes anti-Semitism.

It comes as House Republicans in Washington have asked Columbia and other colleges and universities to provide detailed plans for how they will handle pro-Palestinian protests that Republican lawmakers say have caused “anti-Semitic chaos” and disrupted the previous academic year.

Unrest erupted last spring at Columbia and at schools across the country, with students setting up encampments and clashing with police, disrupting classes and graduations as they protested Israel’s invasion of Gaza after Hamas’s terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

The Columbia task force said it heard testimony from hundreds of Jewish students and others.

“These student stories are heartbreaking and make clear that the University has an obligation to act,” the report said.

The task force said many Jewish and Israeli students “were the targets of ethnic slurs, stereotypes about supposedly dangerous Israeli veterans, anti-Semitic tropes about Jewish wealth and hidden power, threats and physical attacks, exclusion of Zionists from student groups, and inconsistent standards. We propose this definition for use in training and education, not for disciplinary purposes or as a means of limiting free speech or academic freedom.”

The report continues: “Specifically, we recommend anti-bias and inclusive training for students, resident advisors, resident assistants, teaching assistants, student-facing staff, and faculty. In a community dedicated to free speech and pluralism, we must prepare students with diverse perspectives and backgrounds to interact with one another. We must foster mutual respect, tolerance, civility, and an open learning environment.”

In an Aug. 23 memo to students obtained by ABC News, interim President Katrina Armstrong said the school recently created an Office of Institutional Equity to step up efforts to combat discrimination and harassment on campus, including alleged Title VI violations. The office will streamline all violations to ensure they are handled fairly, Armstrong said.

“It will be essential to redouble our efforts to combat discrimination and harassment and their consequences,” Armstrong wrote, adding: “Effectively managing protests and demonstrations allows us to advance our educational and research missions while allowing for freedom of expression and debate.”

The letters from the Republican chairmen of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Education and Workforce Committee ask “what policies, procedures and concrete steps your university will implement to prevent a repeat of the anti-Semitic mayhem that swept across American campuses last academic year.”

“These disruptions are likely to return to campuses this fall and you [the schools’ leadership] “Universities must be prepared to act,” Reps. Jason Smith and Virginia Foxx, respectively, wrote to 10 universities, requesting responses by Sept. 5.

Columbia student Eden Yadegar was Foxx’s guest during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress in July and spoke at a Capitol Hill panel in February, detailing how she said she was followed around campus by protesters wielding sticks.

“At this point, ignoring Jewish students is a hallmark of the administration and not just a passing issue,” Yadegar told ABC News after the task force’s report was released. “And if they’re not even going to listen to us, I don’t see how they’re going to address the issues that directly affect us on a daily basis.”

The latest such disturbances include a pro-Palestinian organization at the University of Michigan, which held a “die-in” protest on campus this week, according to the Michigan Daily.

University of Michigan President Santa Ono gave a transcribed interview to Foxx’s committee earlier this month. The university’s student government was disbanded by pro-Palestinian activists at the start of the new school year, according to the report.

In her welcome message to the Michigan community, Ono said protest was accepted and celebrated at the school as long as it did not endanger or disrupt the operations of the university.

Other institutions, including the University of Central Florida (UCF), will vote on how to tighten protest restrictions later in September, according to a UCF notice of a proposed policy change. The university did not see any large protest encampments last school year, but there were notable demonstrations at its graduation ceremonies.

The House Republicans’ letters to the schools come as part of a congressional investigation that the GOP says is aimed at rooting out anti-Semitism on college campuses, a campaign now led by House Speaker Mike Johnson.

This spring, Johnson expanded the jurisdiction of six Republican-led committees by sending letters to the 10 schools already being investigated by the House Committees on Funding and Education. Smith and Foxx’s investigations include elite institutions like MIT and Harvard as well as Columbia. An MIT spokesman said the school was considering the request.

In contrast, former Education Committee Chairman Rep. Bobby Scott, a Democrat, sent an open letter Friday to colleges in his southeastern Virginia district. He told ABC News that the letter was intended to inform schools of resources available to them through the federal Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

“Campuses need to be prepared for whatever might happen to make sure they don’t violate constitutional rights to free speech or Title VI,” Scott said.

“It’s a violation of Title VI to allow a racially or ethnically hostile environment. You also have to have freedom of speech, and sometimes those two rights conflict,” he said, adding, “The Department of Education has resources to help people balance those two things.”

Scott criticized GOP investigations into anti-Semitism on college campuses because he said Republicans were not raising the same concerns about Islamophobia.

“The only way to effectively combat anti-Semitism is to tackle all forms of hatred and discrimination, and we [the committee] “They aggressively ignored everything else,” Scott told ABC News.

In December, House Republican Conference Chairwoman and Education Committee Member Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., pressed the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT during a hearing on alleged anti-Semitic behavior at their institutions. Stefanik called their testimony “morally flawed” and demanded their resignations. Harvard President Claudine Gay and Penn President Liz Magill resigned shortly thereafter.

Earlier this year, the Education Committee sent subpoenas to Harvard for failing to produce “priority documents” related to the months-long congressional investigation into anti-Semitism.

In August, after Columbia University President Minouche Shafik resigned, Foxx subpoenaed Columbia for failing to turn over “necessary” documents to his committee.

Shafik wrote in his resignation announcement that his resignation would better position Columbia to face future challenges.

“While tensions, divisions and politicization have disrupted our campus over the past year, our mission and core values ​​endure and will continue to guide us as we navigate the challenges ahead,” she wrote.