Columbia, NYU announce anti-discrimination investigations after incidents targeting Jews, Israelis

Columbia University and New York University announce investigations into anti-Israel and antisemitic incidents, as the fall semester gets off to a relatively quiet start.

Columbia, previously an epicenter of anti-Israel protests, issues a statement saying university administrators are investigating recent incidents on campus that involve potential violations of the university’s anti-discrimination and harassment policies.

The announcement comes after a prominent anti-Israel activist on campus was pictured on the first day of class with a sign saying, “Some of your classmates were IOF criminals committing genocide in Palestine.”

Unacceptable conduct from @Columbia students on the first day of classes, including Cameron Jones, who was an encampment spokesperson in 2024. Why is he still on campus? Telling students to be automatically suspicious of Israelis is textbook discrimination. pic.twitter.com/lFUvyzcHSC

— Columbia Jewish & Israeli Students ✡️???????? (@CUJewsIsraelis) September 2, 2025

IOF stands for Israeli Occupation Force, a derogatory term for the IDF that is often used by anti-Israel activists.

Israeli students and faculty have said such statements target Israelis on campus because IDF service is mandatory.

New York University says it is investigating the theft of a mezuzah from a student’s doorway. Campus safety officers report the incident to the NYPD as an antisemitic hate crime, the statement says, calling the theft “disgraceful, antisemitic conduct.”

Despite the incidents, the start of the semester does not see any major protest activity.

At the start of the last semester, in January, Columbia students held a raucous protest outside the campus gates and anti-Israel activists barged into an Israeli professor’s class on the history of Israel.

Columbia and other universities have come under heavy pressure from the Trump administration to rein in antisemitism on campus. Columbia has clamped down on anti-Israel activism since, including by suspending students who violated campus protest rules.

NYU has seen less protest activity and is less of a focus of the administration.

Separately, the NYPD reports 19 antisemitic hate crimes in the city last month, a slight increase over the same period last year.

Antisemitic hate crimes in the city have been trending downward in recent months. While August’s total is an increase over the previous year, the number is antisemitic incidents is far lower than earlier in the Gaza war. In November 2023, there were 69 antisemitic incidents reported to police.

Jews are still targeted more than all other groups combined in the city nearly every month. The number of antisemitic incidents in the city in August amounts to 56% of the 34 total hate crimes in the city.

The decrease in antisemitic hate crimes comes amid a broader downturn in major crimes in the city.