Columbia University Reaches Confidential Settlement in Antisemitism Lawsuit

Columbia University has settled a lawsuit in which Jewish students accused the institution of ignoring campus antisemitism even as incidents of anti-Jewish bigotry escalated in severity and anti-Israel students acted with impunity.

Announced last week by the StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice, the Jewish advocacy group which filed the complaint in partnership with Kasowitz LLP, the terms of the resolution remain strictly confidential, with the parties involved declining to disclose whether the university paid an exorbitant cash amount to avoid a trial to prevent further public embarrassment. What has been shared with the public disclosed Columbia’s agreeing to appoint an official who specializes in matters relevant to federal civil rights laws, offer educational programs on antisemitism, create new scholarships related to Israel, and “consider” adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

According to the definition, antisemitism “is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” It provides 11 specific, contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere. Beyond classic antisemitic behavior associated with the likes of the medieval period and Nazi Germany, the examples include denial of the Holocaust and newer forms of antisemitism targeting Israel such as demonizing the Jewish state, denying its right to exist, and holding it to standards not expected of any other democratic state.

The definition is widely accepted by Jewish groups and lawmakers across the political spectrum, and it is used by hundreds of governing institutions, including the US State Department, European Union, and United Nations.

“This settlement represents an important step toward ensuring that Jewish and Israeli students at Columbia can learn in an environment free from discrimination and hostility,” Oleg Ivanov, executive director of the Center for Legal Justice, said in a press release. “We thank our attorneys for their dedication, and we are hopeful that the commitments made in this agreement will lead to meaningful and systemic change for Jewish students on campus.”

Marc Kasowitz of Kasowitz LLP commended the university’s “commitment and approach to implementing effective long-term changes and meaningful actions to combat antisemitism” while calling on “other colleges and universities to do the right thing” and “follow Columbia’s lead.”

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, the plaintiffs in the case accused Columbia University of violating their contract, to which it is bound upon receiving payment for their tuition, and contravening Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. They sought monetary damages as well as injunctive relief.

The complaint says that students chanted “F— the Jews,” “Death to Jews, “Jews will not defeat us,” and “From water to water, Palestine will be Arab” on campus grounds after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, allegedly violating the school’s code of conduct and never facing consequences.

Faculty engaged in similar behavior. On Oct. 8, 2023, professor Joseph Massad published in Electronic Intifada an essay cheering Hamas’s atrocities, which included slaughtering children and raping women, as “awesome” and describing men who paraglided into a music festival to kill young people as “the air force of the Palestinian resistance.”

Three hundred faculty signed a letter proclaiming “unwavering solidarity” with Massad, and in the following days, Students for Justice in Palestine defended Hamas’s actions as “rooted in international law.” In response, former Columbia University president Minouche Shafik, opting not to address their rhetoric directly, issued a statement mentioning “violence that is affecting so many people” but not, the complaint noted, explicitly condemning Hamas, terrorism, and antisemitism. Nine days later, Shafik rejected an invitation to participate in a viewing of footage of the Oct. 7 attacks captured by CCTV cameras.

The complaint goes on to allege that after bullying Jewish students and rubbing their noses in the carnage Hamas wrought on their people, pro-Hamas students were still unsatisfied and resorted to violence. They beat up five Jewish students in Columbia’s Butler Library. Another attacked a Jewish students with a stick, lacerating his head and breaking his finger, after being asked to return missing persons posters she had stolen.

Following the incidents, pleas for help allegedly went unanswered and administrators told Jewish students they could not guarantee their safety while Students for Justice in Palestine held its demonstrations. The school’s powerlessness to prevent anti-Jewish violence was cited as the reason why Students Supporting Israel (SSI), a recognized school club, was denied permission to hold an event on self-defense. Events with “buzzwords” such as “Israel” and “Palestine” were forbidden, administrators allegedly said, but SJP continued to host events while no one explained the inconsistency.

Columbia University, which recently paid $200 million to terminate a federal investigation of antisemitism at the institution, settled another campus antisemitism lawsuit in June that was brought by a Jewish student at the School of Social Work who accused faculty of unrelenting antisemitic bullying and harassment.

According to court documents, Mackenzie “Macky” Forrest was abused by the faculty, one of whom callously denied her accommodations for sabbath observance and then held out the possibility of her attending class virtually during pro-Hamas protests which made the campus unsafe for Jewish students. Her Jewishness and requests for arrangements which would allow her to complete her assignments created what the Lawfare Project described as a “pretext” for targeting Forrest and conspiring to expel her from the program, a plan that involved fabricating stories with the aim of smearing her as insubordinate.

Spurious accusations were allegedly made by one professor, Andre Ivanoff, who, according to the suit, was the first to tell Forrest that her sabbath observance was a “problem.” Ivanoff implied that she had failed to meet standards of “behavioral performance” while administrators spread rumors that she had declined to take on key assignments, according to court documents. This snowballed into a threat: Forrest was allegedly told that she could either take an “F” in the field placement or drop out, the only action that would prevent sullying her transcript with her failing grade.

The terms of that settlement are also buried under a confidentiality agreement.

“We brought this lawsuit to hold Columbia accountable for what we alleged was a deeply troubling failure to protect a Jewish student from antisemitic discrimination and retaliation,” Lawfare Project litigation director Ziporah Reich, whose organization represented Forrest, said after the case was resolved. “When Jewish students report harassment and seek accommodations, their concerns must be taken seriously. The civil rights of Jewish students are simply not negotiable.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.