It's time to check back in with Columbia University to see how things are going on the antisemitism front. Now that graduation is over and many students have departed for the summer, you might expect things to be calming down and returning to normal. But that's clearly not the case at all. There are still summer classes being held and Jewish students are reporting regular incidents of harassment and antisemitic remarks. The abuse isn't just coming from pro-Hamas students and protesters, either. Some of the professors have been getting in on the action. Some of the reported conduct is simply beyond the pale, but the administration still doesn't appear to be inclined to do anything about it. The university task force on antisemitism reported one professor who literally warned students to avoid mainstream media coverage of the war in Gaza because he said the media is "owned by Jews." (Fox News)

The Columbia University task force on campus antisemitism has reported a string of disturbing incidents at the Ivy League university, exposing what it characterized as the "harassment of Jewish students" and antisemitic remarks made by professors – including one who reportedly told his class to avoid the mainstream media because "it is owned by Jews."

Task force members who spoke with Israeli publication Haaretz described a pattern of anti-Jewish bias at the Manhattan university, which has been plagued by anti-Israel protests since the October 7th Hamas massacre.

Jewish and Israeli students regularly felt "targeted and ostracized" on campus, and were often singled out in the classroom, task force members told the paper.

Rather than responding to the issues brought to light by the task force, it appears that Columbia's faculty and administration are ignoring their warnings completely and even participating in the harassment. One professor was reportedly reading out a list of student names prior to an exam and when they encountered a "Jewish-sounding" surname, they paused and asked the student to explain their views on Israel's actions in Gaza, even though that was in no way related to the course material.

When a different student privately sent an email to her professor protesting the antisemitic treatment taking place in class, the professor read the email aloud to the class and identified her as the author. Other professors used classroom time to encourage students to take part in the pro-Hamas protests and some even moved their classes outdoors to the protest sites. None of this has anything to do with the normal course of studies at Columbia. This is blatant harassment and intimidation of Jewish students and those who support them, the so-called "zionists." 

The task force fielded complaints from more than 500 students who told of direct incidents of harassment and threats against them. That's not a massive percentage of the university's roughly 35,000 enrolled students, but I'm sure all of them have supporters. If the administration refuses to take action to provide a safe, productive environment for all students, including the Jewish ones, there may be no recourse other than making plans to transfer to a school without this type of racist, antisemitic environment. If enough of them move on and take their tuition money with them, the administration will begin to see the light.

It would be a shame if the situation reaches that point because it will no doubt feel like the students would be signaling a surrender. The hateful antisemites will have won. Yet what more would it take for the administration to be prodded into action? Will one of the Jewish students have to be physically attacked and injured? Will yet another Jewish girl have to wind up being raped before Columbia puts a stop to all of this? (Rape seems to be very popular among the antisemites this year, as well as the illegal migrants.) And where are the parents of all of these Jew-hating students? Cut off their tuition money, pull them out of school, and send them off to get a job in the real world. That's probably exactly the sort of education they are far more in need of at this point.