33 Summer 2025 n the morning of April 21, 2024, days before Passover, 300 Jewish Columbia University students received a text from their campus rabbi: 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. 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.1 The weekend before, the Gaza Solidarity Encampment entrenched itself on Columbia’s campus and pro-Palestine protests began outside of the Columbia gates, led by the pro-Palestine organization, Within Our Lifetime. Epithets and curses were slung at students walking to campus Hillel wearing yarmulkes and Star of David necklaces – “We are so happy that you Zionists are finally leaving campus,” “kike,” and more. A few days later, a group of around ten Zionist Jewish students stood next to the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, playing Israeli and Jewish music, as well as reciting the American national anthem. The pro-Palestine protesters’ response shocked everyone. One protester, wrapped in a keffiyeh, stood by the students with a sign reading “Al-Quasam’s Next Targets,” encouraging the military wing of Hamas to attack the Jewish students. Others screamed, “You fucking inbreds,” “Go back to Poland,” and “All you do is colonize.” Eve Spear, a then-senior at Barnard College, described the scene, “Saturday night was antisemitism in its most blatant form.”2 The students left in a panic when a pro-Palestine protester grabbed the flag of a student, Jonathan Lederer. As the protesters surrounded Lederer, another protester tried to burn his flag and a third threw an object at him. The Jewish students continued home together, and as they exited the gates of the university onto the New York City streets, a protester yelled, “Yehudim [Jews], yehudi [Jew], fuck you.” That night, Eve locked her dorm room for fear that she was being followed by protesters. The next day, after receiving the text message from Rabbi Elie Buechler, then-director of the Orthodox Union-Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus at Columbia/Barnard, another student Rachel Frielich, a then-freshman at Columbia University, packed up her dorm room and, along with many other Jewish students fled campus. “At this point, I’m not saying I’m Jewish, I’m not saying I’m Israeli,” Shiri Gil, an Israeli then-Columbia student, recalled. She continued “I’m barely on campus because I feel threatened. My friend was called a Nazi and physically pushed off the lawn where the encampment is – a space where everyone can be, a public place for everyone.” The explosion of campus antisemitic incidents in the United States after October 7, 2023, was not the beginning of campus antisemitism; Jewish students have confronted campus antisemitism for decades. Post-October 7, many ‘It’s Unfortunate that I Have to Sue’: Why Some Jewish Students Are Suing their Universities Rebecca Massel 1. Rebecca Massel, “Rabbi advises Jewish students to ‘return home as soon as possible’ following reports of ‘extreme antisemitism’ on and around campus,” COLUMBIA SPECTATOR (April 22, 2024), available at https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2024/04/21/ rabbi-advises-jewish-students-to-return-home-as-soonas-possible-following-reports-of-extreme-antisemitismon-and-around-campus/ 2. Isabella Ramirez, “Our Campus. Our Crisis. Inside the encampments and crackdowns that shook American politics. A report by the staff of the Columbia Daily Spectator,” INTELLIGENCER (May 4, 2024), available at https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/columbiauniversity-protests-israel-gaza-campus.html O
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