37 Summer 2025 for taking on these cases in defense of Jewish students across several universities.” Yadegar has seen that Columbia will only act when forced, noting that while the university is an institution of higher learning, it is also a business. “It’s unfortunate that I have to sue the university,” she explained. Yadegar said she feels grateful as a first generation American to have the opportunity to attend Columbia. My parents and grandparents have sacrificed so much for me to be here, that I get to study at one of the greatest institutions in the world,” she said. “The Columbia that I attend now is not even reminiscent of the one that I enrolled in four years ago.” It became clear to her that without external pressure, both from Congress and the judicial branch, the antisemitism at Columbia is not likely to change. Other Jewish students, like Eliana Goldin, a junior at Columbia University on October 7, 2023, became a Zionist advocate on her campus, alongside Yadegar, yet decided not to sue the university. While Goldin was not involved in the pro-Israel movement on campus before October 7, afterwards, the director of Columbia/Barnard Hillel asked her to co-lead its pro-Israel group, Aryeh. Goldin and her co-chair, Elisha Baker, bolster Aryeh’s efforts to engage the campus community about Israel by providing Columbia students with diverse opportunities to connect with Israel. Over the past two years, she has worked on on-campus initiatives, like leading hostage tables and handing out free books about the IsraeliPalestinian conflict on campus. Aryeh has also increased its Instagram and social media presence to share accurate information about the country, hostage crisis, and war. Her X account has garnered nearly 5,000 followers, where Goldin works to share her pro-Israel and nuanced stances on the war, antisemitism on college campuses, and, more recently, her responses to the federal government’s investigation into Columbia. During the April 2024 Gaza Solidarity Encampments, the university attempted to negotiate with the proPalestine students to encourage them to dismantle the encampment. The negotiations failed and the encampment ended only after the NYPD conducted mass arrests of protesters who occupied Hamilton Hall. Afterwards, students, including Goldin, felt that it was a “double standard to not negotiate with the Jews.” In September 2024, at the beginning of the next academic year, she and several other Zionist advocates came to the university and asked for a seat at the table. Goldin said that throughout the past year, she had worked with administrators to advocate for the Jewish students and the Zionist cause. Aryeh and SSI planned an art installation for the one-year anniversary of October 7 on the main lawn of Columbia, and when the administration refused, instead of publicizing the disagreements or holding the event without approval, they continued to meet with the administration with their own demands. Finally, the university agreed to allow them to host the installation and allow hundreds of Jewish students to commemorate the moment. Goldin said that she believes that working with her administrators can often be beneficial, even though she knows real change will require outside pressure. “It’s hard for the university to know what we want if we're not saying it directly to them,” she said. Goldin feels that meeting with the administration allowed Zionist Jewish students the opportunity to express the reasoning behind their demands, in addition to their use of lawsuits and federal pressure, to achieve their goals. These have included advocating for a ban on masks (with the exception of religious or health accommodations), accountability for those who violate university policies, and no amnesty for students who occupied Hamilton Hall in April 2024. Goldin conceded that she understood why lawsuits or federal and congressional investigations are critical to combatting antisemitism at Columbia. “[University administrators] actually have this baseline understanding of why these changes are important, even though they weren’t really going to do it until they were forced to,” she said. “It took outside pressure to ever actually do anything, but we were the people who described why these changes were important in the first place and made it palatable and understandable.” While she understands the significance, Goldin chose not to be part of the Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP lawsuit against Columbia because “there were enough other people who were putting their names on it that I knew they would have the intended effect,” she explained. Jewish students on college campuses have faced unprecedented hatred. October 7 was a watershed moment for Israel and world Jewry. It also brought to light antisemitism institutionalized within university administrations – from administrators who have sent offensive messages about concerns raised by their Jewish communities to how antisemitism has trickled down within institutions to students needing to move dorm rooms to escape harassment and bullying for being Zionists. According to Cojab, documentation is key in lawsuits. She encourages Jewish students to ensure that everything is written down or recorded. “Unless you have a paper
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