As Columbia anti-Israel encampment endures, Jewish students horrified by ‘Judenrein’ campus
‘A hotbed for radical antisemitism’: Protesters have shouted ‘Kill all the Jews’ and ‘We want one Arab state’ as administration struggles with out of control demonstrators, outside agitators
Reporter at The Times of Israel
NEW YORK — More than a week of anti-Israel students occupying the West Lawn of Columbia University has seen many Jewish students flee the campus, fearing for their safety amid increasing antisemitic rhetoric, threats and a growing lack of faith in the administration’s ability to protect them.
“At the end of the day, [Columbia President Minouche] Shafik should say ‘enough is enough.’ Frankly, it is absurd and ridiculous that this has been allowed to continue,” Michael Lippman, a junior said, speaking to The Times of Israel by phone from his home in Los Angeles. He plans to return to campus at the end of the week.
The “this” Lippman was referring to is the ongoing, unauthorized encampment by pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel groups on Columbia University’s campus.
It was erected on April 17, the same day Shafik traveled to Capitol Hill to testify before Congress about the university’s handling of rampant antisemitism since October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists butchered 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted 253 more to the Gaza Strip, leading to the ongoing conflict there.
As the Columbia protest continued, Jewish students told The Times of Israel they were fearful, angry and disappointed. Most are afraid for their physical well-being, and all said they were deeply disillusioned in what they called the university’s continued inaction regarding their physical safety and steps to quell outright antisemitism.
“Something really bad has to happen for something to be done about it. [The protesters] got what they wanted. The campus is Judenrein now. It’s occupied territory. It’s so funny they call it a de-occupation, or liberated zone, but Jews are not allowed,” Noah Miller said in a Zoom interview from his family home in Houston.
Miller, a first-year graduate student in architecture, said he doesn’t plan to return to campus until next semester, a decision made in part because he doesn’t trust the administration to protect Jewish students.
While anti-Israel students have held regular demonstrations, many of them in violation of the university’s conduct policy, this is by far the largest and most sustained. During the past few days, videos taken inside the encampment have shown students chanting “Zionists not allowed here,” “Go back to Poland,” and other students calling for “10,000 October 7ths.”
Anti-Israel and antisemitic protests have sprung up in cities and on campuses across the United States since October 7, predating Israel’s military campaign in the Strip but intensifying as it drags on.
The protesters occupying Columbia’s West Lawn are demanding that the school sever financial and academic ties with Israel, which includes putting an end to the school’s dual degree program with Tel Aviv University. While more than 100 were arrested last Thursday on charges of trespassing, students suspended for various activities related to the protests have reportedly defied bans and been on campus.
The university administration has been holding talks with the encampment’s organizers, who were given a since-extended midnight Tuesday deadline by Shafik to reach an agreement on clearing the area.
According to the university, student protesters had committed to dismantling and removing a significant number of tents.
So far that has not appeared to have happened, said a student named Sabrina who spent time just outside the encampment on Wednesday. She asked that her last name be withheld out of concern for her own safety.
According to Sabrina, there has been no apparent change in the number of tents, while protesters within the encampment enforce a set of rules that encourage the proliferation of hate.
What people don’t realize is the campus has become a hotbed for radical antisemitism. It’s like the Hitler Youth. They say things like, ‘A Zionist has entered the camp.’ They view us as an entity that can be eradicated
“There are students wearing yellow vests with their keffiyehs, and if they see someone engaging with someone outside the encampment, they pull them away and say, ‘You’re not allowed to talk to them.’ They say things like, ‘Kill all the Jews,’ and, ‘We want one Arab state,’” Sabrina said.
“What people don’t realize is the campus has become a hotbed for radical antisemitism,” said Sabrina. “It’s like the Hitler Youth. They say things like, ‘A Zionist has entered the camp.’ They view us as an entity that can be eradicated. I feel a lot more scared now than I was after October 7.”
As scared as she feels on campus, Sabrina said she refuses to hide the ‘Bring Them Home’ dog tag she wears around her neck on behalf of the hostages, or her Star of David necklace.
Likewise, Melissa Saidak, who is set to graduate from the Columbia School of Social Work, said that this past week has been the most difficult of the semester.
Because of the ongoing protest, Saidak can no longer get out at her usual subway station, which has been occupied by anti-Israel protestors. But that’s an inconvenience, she said. The real challenge has come from verbal abuse.
People aren’t talking nearly enough about the anti-Zionism that is being pushed in the encampment and how that normalizes prejudice against Israelis and Jews. To force Jewish students to denounce Zionism? We don’t do that to other students. We don’t expect Chinese students to denounce their military at the start of every conversation
“I’ve been screamed at because I wear a hostage tag and called a Zionist and a murderer,” Saidak said.
“People aren’t talking nearly enough about the anti-Zionism that is being pushed in the encampment and how that normalizes prejudice against Israelis and Jews. To force Jewish students to denounce Zionism? We don’t do that to other students. We don’t expect Chinese students to denounce their military at the start of every conversation,” she added.
The issue has garnered international attention. On Wednesday, British, Canadian, French and Israeli news crews vied for space on the sidewalk across from the school’s main gate, joined by 54-year-old Diana Perkins, who was visiting New York City from Tel Aviv.
“Just as people from the States came to Israel to see with their own eyes what happened, I’m here so that I can go back and tell my friends and family,” Perkins said, holding a small picture of Emily Damari, 27, whom Hamas terrorists kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday called for unequivocal condemnation of the protests.
“Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities,” Netanyahu said in a video statement. “They call for the annihilation of Israel, they attack Jewish students, they attack Jewish faculty. This is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s. It’s unconscionable. It has to be stopped. It has to be condemned unequivocally. But that’s not what happened.”
“When you listen to them, they say not only ‘Death to Israel’ and ‘Death to the Jews,’ but also ‘Death to America,’” he added.
None of this will deter Nick Baum, a freshman, from returning to campus on Friday.
“One part of the Passover story is about wandering through foreign lands until we arrive where we’re meant to belong as Jews,” said Baum. “Right now, Columbia is making us feel like we’re not welcome. When they say, ‘We don’t want Zionists here,’ that means we Jewish Zionists have to go back. It’s a form of resistance.”
