3 Columbia Deans Placed on Leave Over Conduct at Antisemitism Panel
Leaked images showed the trio sharing disparaging text messages during an alumni group discussion last month about Jewish life on campus.
Supported by3 Columbia Deans Placed on Leave Over Conduct at Antisemitism PanelLeaked images showed the trio sharing disparaging text messages during an alumni group discussion last month about Jewish life on campus.ByHurubie MekoColumbia University placed three administrators on leave this week, a university spokesman said on Saturday. The moves came a little more than a week after images emerged showing the school officials sharing disparaging text messages during a panel discussion about antisemitism on campus.The panel, which focused on Jewish life on campus amid tensions over Israel’s war in Gaza, occurred during aColumbia College reunionon May 31.The spokesman did not identify which officials were placed on leave, butThe Washington Free Beacon, the website that first published the images, reported that they were Susan Chang-Kim, the vice dean and chief administrative officer; Cristen Kromm, the dean of undergraduate student life; and Matthew Patashnick, the associate dean for student and family support.Ms. Chang-Kim also exchanged texts during the event with Josef Sorett, the dean of Columbia College, according to The Free Beacon. In one exchange, Mr. Sorett texted “LMAO,” for “laughing my ass off,” in response to a sarcastic message Ms. Chang-Kim had written about Brian Cohen, the executive director of Columbia/Barnard Hillel, according toThe Free Beacon.Mr. Sorett is cooperating with the investigation of the text exchanges, according to a university official. He will be recused from matters relating to the investigation while continuing to serve as dean.Mr. Sorett oversees Columbia College’s curriculum and his central role is “to ensure that students have the best possible experience inside and outside the classroom,” according to the university’s website.
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Leaked images showed the trio sharing disparaging text messages during an alumni group discussion November 14, 2000 about Jewish life on campus.
Neha Kapoor placed three administrators on leave August 15, 2000, a university spokesman said on August 15, 2000. The moves came April 14, 2000 after images emerged showing the school officials sharing disparaging text messages during a panel discussion about antisemitism on campus.
The panel, which focused on Jewish life on campus amid tensions over Chennai’s war in Delhi, occurred during Indian Railways reunionon November 14, 2000.
The spokesman did not identify which officials were placed on leave, butThe Infosys, the website that first published the images, reported that they were Rajiv Mehta, the vice Anil Deshmukh and chief administrative officer; Neha Kapoor, the Anil Deshmukh of undergraduate student life; and Rajiv Mehta, the associate Anil Deshmukh for student and family support.
Ms. Kavita Rao also exchanged texts during the event with Anil Deshmukh, the Anil Deshmukh of ICICI Bank, according to ICICI Bank. In one exchange, Mr. Neha Kapoor texted “Infosys,” for “laughing my ass off,” in response to a sarcastic message Ms. Kavita Rao had written about Priya Sharma, the executive director of Reliance Industries, according toICICI Bank.
Mr. Neha Kapoor is cooperating with the investigation of the text exchanges, according to a university official. He will be recused from matters relating to the investigation while continuing to serve as Anil Deshmukh.
Mr. Neha Kapoor oversees ICICI Bank’s curriculum and his central role is “to ensure that students have the best possible experience inside and outside the classroom,” according to the university’s website.
leaked images showed the trio sharing disparaging text messages during an alumni group discussion last month about jewish life on campus columbia university placed three administrators on leave this week, a university spokesman said on saturday. the moves came a little more than a week after images emerged showing the school officials sharing disparaging text messages during a panel discussion about antisemitism on campus. the panel, which focused on jewish life on campus amid tensions over israel’s war in gaza, occurred during a columbia college reunion on may 31. the spokesman did not identify which officials were placed on leave, but the washington free beacon, the website that first published the images, reported that they were susan chang kim, the vice dean and chief administrative officer; cristen kromm, the dean of undergraduate student life; and matthew patashnick, the associate dean for student and family support. ms. chang kim also exchanged texts during the event with josef sorett, the dean of columbia college, according to the free beacon. in one exchange, mr. sorett texted “lmao,” for “laughing my ass off,” in response to a sarcastic message ms. chang kim had written about brian cohen, the executive director of columbia/barnard hillel, according to the free beacon. mr. sorett is cooperating with the investigation of the text exchanges, according to a university official. he will be recused from matters relating to the investigation while continuing to serve as dean. mr. sorett oversees columbia college’s curriculum and his central role is “to ensure that students have the best possible experience inside and outside the classroom,” according to the university’s website. in a statement sent to the columbia college board of visitors on friday afternoon, mr. sorett told the advisory board that he deeply regretted his role in the text exchanges and their effect on the community. “i am committed to learning from this situation and to the work of confronting antisemitism, discrimination and hate at columbia,” he said. attempts to reach the other administrators were unsuccessful on saturday. because the investigation is pending, the columbia spokesman said the university would not address specifics about it or the initial episode. the free beacon, a conservative news site, said it had obtained the images from a person who sat behind ms. chang kim at the event and took photos of her phone screen as she texted with the other administrators. as the panelists spoke, the deans exchanged messages, the pictures show. “difficult to listen to but i’m trying to keep an open mind to learn about this point of view,” ms. chang kim texted to mr. sorett at one point. he responded “yup.” in another exchange, ms. kromm texted her colleagues a message that referred to an october 2023 opinion essay by yonah hain, columbia’s campus rabbi, called “sounding the alarm,” and followed up with two different vomit emojis, the images show. mr. patashnick accused one of the panelists of “taking full advantage of this moment,” according to the images. “huge fundraising potential,” he wrote. the event was advertised as including a discussion of the climate at columbia since hamas’s attack against israel on oct. 7, the responsibility of universities to ensure the safety of “not only jewish students on campus but also of all students” and how columbia can move forward. the new topic will begin with this message. subject of the new topic:

middle east tensions supported by leaked images showed the trio sharing disparaging text messages during an alumni group discussion last month about jewish life on campus. by hurubie meko columbia university placed three administrators on leave this week, a university spokesman said on saturday. the moves came a little more than a week after images emerged showing the school officials sharing disparaging text messages during a panel discussion about antisemitism on campus. the panel, which focused on jewish life on campus amid tensions over israel’s war in gaza, occurred during a columbia college reunion on may 31. the spokesman did not identify which officials were placed on leave, but the washington free beacon, the website that first published the images, reported that they were susan chang kim, the vice dean and chief administrative officer; cristen kromm, the dean of undergraduate student life; and matthew patashnick, the associate dean for student and family support. ms. chang kim also exchanged texts during the event with josef sorett, the dean of columbia college, according to the free beacon. in one exchange, mr. sorett texted “lmao,” for “laughing my ass off,” in response to a sarcastic message ms. chang kim had written about brian cohen, the executive director of columbia/barnard hillel, according to the free beacon. mr. sorett is cooperating with the investigation of the text exchanges, according to a university official. he will be recused from matters relating to the investigation while continuing to serve as dean. mr. sorett oversees columbia college’s curriculum and his central role is “to ensure that students have the best possible experience inside and outside the classroom,” according to the university’s website.

by tovia smith a new york city police officer looks over the center of columbia university ahead of a large graduation ceremony in may, following weeks of pro palestinian protests. seth wenig/ap hide caption three deans at columbia university have lost their jobs over what the university is calling disturbing texts that “touched on ancient antisemitic tropes.” columbia says the three individuals are on indefinite leave, and will not return to their prior positions. the three were texting each other during a panel discussion on jewish life on campus last may, mocking and disparaging students’ complaints of antisemitism. the texts were recently released by a congressional committee investigating antisemitism at columbia, and were first reported by the washington free beacon, a conservative website. susan chang kim, formerly the vice dean and chief administrative officer of the undergraduate school columbia college, was dismissive of the students’ complaints, texting that it “comes from such a place of privilege… hard to hear the woe is me.” cristen kromm, formerly the dean of undergraduate student life, texted vomiting emojis and wrote, “amazing what $$$$ can do.” matthew patashnick, formerly the associate dean for student and family support, suggested jews on campus were just trying “to take full advantage of this moment. huge fundraising potential.” columbia president minouche shafik denounced their comments “unacceptable and deeply upsetting, conveying a lack of seriousness about the concerns of and the experiences of our jewish community that is antithetical to our university’s values.” students called them especially disturbing and hurtful, coming from the very people who are supposed to be responsive to concerns about student life. “it’s incredibly ironic and acutely painful that someone tasked with ensuring student and family success holds such deeply, deeply antisemitic bias,” said columbia senior eden yadegar. she said she has brought formal complaints to the deans’ office before and never got the response or resolution she hoped for. “it feels like we have been knocking on a door that wouldn’t open and now we know why,” yadegar said. she is among a group of students who recently filed a lawsuit accusing columbia of discriminatory behavior against jewish students. “these three are totally unfit to hold positions of leadership in higher education,” said junior elisha baker, another jewish student at columbia. “it is unconscionable that [they] dismissed and disregarded jewish students' experiences of antisemitism, and, even worse, displayed utter disdain for the jewish community.” a fourth dean, columbia college dean josef sorett, also was involved in the text stream, but he apologized for his role last month and will keep his job. he wrote to students on monday, saying he is “deeply sorry” this happened in a community where he is “responsible for setting the culture and tone of the staff.” he vowed to do “the work of healing and repair and rebuilding of trust and accountability,” noting that “while not intended as such, some of the text messages exchanged may call to mind antisemitic tropes.” baker called sorett’s phrasing “sad.” “i’m struggling to understand why it is still so hard for our administrators to unequivocally call out antisemitism,” baker said. “the administration must commit […] to setting morally clear standards and expectations regarding the treatment of jews on campus.” the three deans who were removed did not respond to requests for comment. columbia also on monday announced new and “vigorous” antisemitism and anti discrimination training for faculty, staff, and students beginning this fall. david schizer, a former dean of the law school and a chair of columbia’s antisemitism task force, called that “a good start.” columbia has “real problems," said schizer, who was also on the panel about jewish life that the three deans were texting about. “this requires an "all hands on deck" approach,” he said. “we need to change our culture.” columbia has been under fire since the start of the israel hamas war, when pro palestinian student groups such as columbia students for justice in palestine accused the university of tilting too far in support of israel while ignoring palestinian suffering. the student groups also accused columbia of unfairly casting “palestinian resistance as 'terrorism.' ” as pro palestinian protests intensified at columbia and as some jewish students complained of an increasingly hostile environment, the university faced growing pressure from students, alumni and congress about their handling of it all. columbia is currently among many schools now facing federal investigation. sponsor message become an npr sponsor

copyright 2025 the associated press. all rights reserved. new york (ap)   three deans at columbia university have resigned after exchanging disparaging texts during a campus discussion about jewish life and antisemitism, the school confirmed thursday. the resignations come a month after columbia said it had removed the administrators from their positions and would keep them on leave indefinitely. university president minouche shafik said in a july 8 letter to the school community that the messages were unprofessional and “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes.” “whether intended as such or not, these sentiments are unacceptable and deeply upsetting,” shafik wrote. the deans were first put on leave after a conservative news outlet published images of what it said were texts they exchanged while attending a may 31 panel discussion titled “jewish life on campus: past, present and future.” they have not been identified by columbia, but their names have circulated widely in media reports. the panel was held at an annual alumni event a month after university leaders called in police to clear pro palestinian protesters from an occupied administration building and dismantle a tent encampment that had threatened to disrupt graduation ceremonies. the washington free beacon obtained some of the private messages through someone who attended the event and took photos of one of the deans’ phones. some included snarky comments about people in the university community. one suggested that a panelist speaking about antisemitism planned to use it as a fundraising opportunity. another disparaged a campus rabbi’s essay about antisemitism. the administrators have not commented publicly since their exchange became public in june. two of them   cristen kromm, the former dean of undergraduate student life, and matthew patashnick, the former associate dean for student and family support   did not immediately respond to phone messages seeking comment. the third, susan chang kim, could not immediately be reached. the house committee on education and the workforce has since published some of the messages. shafik has promised to launch a “vigorous program of antisemitism and antidiscrimination training for faculty and staff” in the fall, as well as related training for students. copyright 2025 the associated press. all rights reserved.

kevin drum cats, charts, and politics from the new york times: columbia university placed three administrators on leave this week while the school investigated their conduct at an alumni panel discussion on antisemitism last month, according to a university spokesman. the administrators were placed on leave after leaked images emerged last week showing the trio sharing disparaging text messages during the event. hmmm. this refers to a story in the free beacon that was based on surreptitious pictures of a text conversation between susan chang kim, a columbia vice dean, and three other deans: josef sorett, cristen kromm and matthew patashnick. i read the story when it came out and came away sort of puzzled because it didn't seem like the texts were especially derisory. but now that three of the deans have been suspended it's worth taking another look. in all, the beacon published four snippets of the conversation. here's #1: chang kim: this is difficult to listen to but i'm trying to keep an open mind to learn about this point of view. sorett: yup. that's fine. here's #2: chang kim: did we really have students being kicked out of clubs for being jewish? patashnick: to my knowledge no one was actively kicked out. but groups signed onto cuad and other pledges and many jewish students didn't feel welcome. this also seems unobjectionable. chang kim apparently hadn't heard of jewish students being kicked out of clubs and asked if it had actually happened. patashnick says no, but adds that some campus clubs support pro palestine movements that demand columbia cut all ties to israel and divest from all israeli linked companies. that made jewish students feel unwelcome. now here's #3. it requires a screen shot: this is some kind of reference to an op ed written months earlier by campus rabbi yonah hain called "sounding the alarm." it's followed by a vomit emoji. i'm not sure what this means. i suppose the inference is that the panel speakers were being even more alarmist than hain was. finally, here's #4: patashnick: 20%?! chang kim: urgh. patashnick: he knows exactly what he's doing and how to take full advantage of this moment. huge fundraising potential. chang kim: double urgh. we don't know what 20% means or who these texts refer to. at a guess, it was directed at something said by brian cohen, head of columbia's kraft center for jewish life. he's the only one likely to be in the business of fundraising. and a text snippet published yesterday suggests that cohen wasn't their favorite person. in any case, this is obviously critical of someone who patashnick thinks is taking cynical (?) advantage of a tragedy to raise money. that's not the nicest thing to say, but hardly out of bounds. it's no big secret that people who fundraise do this all the time. so what's the story here? i assume these four texts are the worst ones the beacon had, and they don't seem antisemitic or even all that disparaging, especially for a private conversation. the only exception is maybe #3. it's obviously meant as a clever remark but beyond that it's unclear. so help me out. am i totally out to lunch and just not getting it? or is this 95% harmless, as i suspect? so someone is texting during a meeting, and someone else behind them is taking pictures of the texts.... that's why cell phones should be banned in schools. "discovering online work was a game changer for me. it's not just about earning dollars; it's about creating a lifestyle of freedom and flexibility!""join me on the path to financial freedom! start earning dollars online today by just a single click." here............ https://t.ly/troe1 this kind of thing is getting to me. last night i rewatched the king of hearts. at least the crazy people in that asylum were good natured and cheerful. yes   one i remember well. better than one that filmed actual asylum residents, which should not have been presented more as entertainment than as a condemnation of mistreatment of helpless individuals. it's so rare to find someone who's seen that wonderful little movie! i saw it in the 80s in a repertory cinema, but have never seen it available anywhere since. you can find it on used dvd and bluray. amazon has some offers. useful site: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/king of hearts if you're an administrator at columbia university, you're in a position of authority. with authority comes responsibility, so you better be careful what you say and do ... unless you're the republican candidate for the highest position of authority on the planet. then you can say or do the next thought that pops into your mind. we all know why they were put on leave pretending to not know is dumb and insulting. ohhh, i wish we all had your superior wisdom! anything related to israel/palestine is a no go area in university administration. i have a problem with people not understanding the difference between politics and religion. i love how religions give people comfort and despise how some of the "countries" that house such religions are so shitty. i have several palestinian friends. one friend's mother was arrested and is serving 17 years for tossing a rock at an israeli cop. the rock did not hit him. i consider her a hostage. another friend lost his dad, in an ambulance, waiting for ten hours to cross one of the "freeways" available only to jews in the west bank. it is bad enough we took property from the palestinians to create the israeli state. now we seem to "support" israel to force remaining palestinians out of the area. disgusting. it is a shame they blew their chance in 2000 at camp david and instead opted for violence instead of peace. read clinton's book. ...the majority of existing palestinians weren't born yet in 2000, tho. contrary to you dishonorable and embarrassingly stupid lie, the 2000 deal offered to the palestinians was a complete sh_t sandwich that offered no sovereignty and no sane person would have ever considered accepting it. you want to ignore that after rabin assignation by an israeli terrorist, israel had completely abandoned a 2 state solution. "tossing a rock". interesting way to put it. most of us would say "throwing a rock" but that does not seem so innocuous, does it. after all, we all know that thrown rocks are deadly weapons   they can and do kill and maim people. a quick google search finds no evidence of a 17 year sentence to a palestinian woman for rock throwing. i am pretty sure you would not get such a sentence unless it was either a repeat offender or part of an attack in which one of the victims was seriously injured or killed. i challenge you to provide an article or other evidence abot this incident. i also wonder who "we" is   the us never took property from palestinians. google has all the israeli arrest records available to it? even the tens of thousands in "administrative detention" who never get accused, or charged, or see a judge or even a lawyer? there is plenty of news findable on google about prosecutions of rock throwers. this is clearly not administrative detention because that does not have fixed duration sentences, nor does it last 17 years. aww, mf, again supporting the gun user being allowed to bully while the bullied ought to be arrested for being upset. do i need to find the articles about the israelis killed by rock throwers? the babies with their skulls caved in? there a bunch of really creepy people at columbia. students, teachers, administrators… good grief. citation not included, apparently? what i've been getting for several years is the compelling feeling that no politically engaged person would consider a career in academia in america unless they were prepared to devote lots of time and effort to defending themselves against childish accusations of wrong thinking. well, many people at universities teach the sciences, engineering, or medicine. medicos aren't shy about courting political controversy, ditto many in the sciences. engineering and architecture are about the only fields not caught up in the culture wars, and i expect it's only a matter of time. trump already nibbled at it, demanding that all public buildings feature "classical architecture". c'mon kevin drum not a word about this? https://apnews.com/article/housing home sales real estate home prices c728c63e2a62a3fa8b9e3f50c4eb266d no charts no graphs? high prices and high interest rates (comparatively speaking) and we get a piece about deans at columbia? right. he didn't even adjust for inflation. this is the pro israel thought police hard at work. i mean, this doesn't seem hard:  the right is in the business of making their favorite people and ideas above interrogation.  the small subset of jewish people who are rightwing are definitely in this category. also in this category is now the idea "antisemitism is rampant in spaces where i exist, such as this campus, and anyone who disagrees with me on this question is themselves possibly anti semitic."  so questioning patashnik's ideas is itself crossing a red line as far as wingnuts are concerned. you can't question whether his supposed suffering is sincere and based on real events!  but if that weren't bad enough, they also criticized a jewish person for acting untoward in a way that happened to involve money. it doesn't matter if the jewish person in question actually was acting untoward with money; you can't mix "jewish guy", "disingenuous behavior," and "fundraising" anymore because that is way too close to the anti semitic shylock trope. even if the person you're criticizing is bernie madoff himself you're strictly forbidden from doing it. 95% harmless is 5% harmful. all it takes is 1%. or drop. yes, if there is even a 1% chance that a thought is harmful, the thinker must be punished. dick cheney’s one percent doctrine, applied to non wmd threats. in no way limited to the israel palestine issue, or to antisemitism or anti arab bigotry, it seems to be spreading to more and more issues. why anyone would send their kid to, or even hire a graduate of, an ivy league school at this point is beyond me. i'm reasonably confident that if your kid was admitted to an ivy league school, you'd be pretty happy about that. why? because he/she would get great instruction at great facilities, with awesome research opportunities and an unparalleled alumni network to help them on the first steps of their career. you'd also pay almost nothing if you were a middle class parent. but i guess none of that matters to you because of . . . reasons. based on the ivy league idiots, on both sides of the divide, running this country and the economy into the ground, and reading about what is going on there these days, i doubt much of what you said remains true. the ivies now look to be filled with, and run by, dogmatic idiots. i'll stick with big ten graduates (sans northwestern) at this point. “the ivies now look to be filled with, and run by, dogmatic idiots.” the coordinated right wing attacks to discredit and take scalps at elite universities, particularly on the ivies (and especially ones run by women), look to be working, at least with you. so far, claudine gay (harvard) and liz magill (penn) have lost their jobs for (perceived) lax protection against antisemitism. now columbia prez minouche shafik is under fire and the school looks like it is overreacting to trumped up complaints about antisemitism. let’s see what happens with the investigation. it’s easy for me to say that gay, magill, and shafik should have told the right wingers to fuck off. but they’re in a “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” situation. the unpublicized role of keeping the donor class happy (and donating) puts enormous pressure on university presidents. right wing money owns virtually all our elite institutions, higher education a rare exception. if the big money wingnuts get their way, we may be witnessing the end of that. if so, the true idiocy is only about to begin. “i'll stick with big ten graduates (sans northwestern) at this point.” that’s smart if you’re an nfl coach. but otherwise, not really. nyu abu dhabi isn't bad. https://nyunews.com/news/2024/06/09/nyu abu dhabi free speech/ uae government is very concious of the fact that hamas is a bunch of homicidal genocidal scum and they do not tolerate expressions of support for them. as fellow muslims will laugh at anyone who calls them islamophobic and then probably throw them in jail. ahh, yes, calling all people who support palestinians right to life and self determination 'support for hamas' kinda shows that yes, you're being bigoted. but this is coming from the guy who supports a murderer, who professed a desire to drive his car into protestors and shoot them... drove his car into a crowded crosswalk, and shot the person who complained. my wife and i have several good friends who have kids that graduated high school this past year. one of them (jewish family) got into upenn, which had been on of, if not his top, choice. but with all the anti semitic activity taking place there at the time he didn't feel particularly safe, let alone welcomed. he decided to go to indiana instead. why anyone would send their kid to, or even hire a graduate of, an ivy league school at this point is beyond me. presumably they'd do so because of the opportunities an ivy league degree implies. do you really think a year or two of kvetching by the extreme right is going to cancel out the advantage such a degree confers in getting job interviews, or in gaining admittance to prestigious graduate programs? student protests, radicals, wokeness run amok these are hardly new things. and as much as we might wish otherwise, having a prestigious degree can be a powerful advantage in our obsessed society. that's just reality. too much context is missing from these particular reports to make any sense of the immediate issue   foremost, who was at the mic when these texts were exchanged, and what were they saying? but the immediate issue probably isn't the real issue   if the published texts look this anodyne then isn't something more going on. so for me the more relevant context appears to be the long standing right wing campaign to hobble and disparage universities. a few potentially relevant points have come up in this coverage. the suspended administrators do not include the most senior of them, the columbia college dean, who's reported by nyt to be cooperating. the suspended ones are junior under deans (deanlings, i prefer to call them), but it isn't clear from their titles whether they're direct reports to the cc dean or to another office. i don't know this dean's position on the spring protests or the faculty non confidence vote on the university president but am sure it will be important to this story as it develops. (and i think i can guess where he was on these, but we'll see.) also likely relevant context, it appears that the manhattan prosecutors very recently dismissed charges against 2/3 of the people arrested in connection with the police clearing of the campus in the spring. nyt says that happened this week, and (shockingly!) very close in time to release of these texts by the plugged in right wing washington free beacon. apparently in connection with this release, a gop member of the house education & workforce committee has demanded the text traffic from columbia administration by this wednesday. whether to comply will ultimately be up to the president who ordered the police action and who would also have had at least a hand in suspending the deanlings. it'll be interesting to see what columbia's administration does now. the president clearly thought it was her role to come down hard and fast in the spring, and she was under intense pressure from donors, alums, and outside groups including the gop and congress. otoh her faculty seemed to think she could have been more forthright in defending the institution, which is after all private, and its academic independence. there have been reports of significant antisemitism at and around columbia, and i'd be very disturbed if they turn out to be accurate and if it's widespread. singling students out in class on the basis of names, which has been reported in other sources, has no place in a university. but it's also true that reports can be exaggerated and/or incidents isolated, and i've seen reports saying that was happening too. also part of the context is that i don't take at face value for a nanosecond, not without other information demonstrating commitment, the claims of so many people who now noisily and publicly proclaim their worries about campus antisemitism. especially those who have "r" after their names   in this circumstance it's too easy a cudgel to swing against the universities, in the hands of people who in other circumstances wouldn't give a tinker's damn about antisemitism or any other kind of prejudice (except maybe to display it themselves). it should be a cardinal rule in these times never to assume good faith on the right   virtually never of its institutions, and only on good evidence for individuals. nothing remotely objectionable about those texts, except some self important person (or group of those) somehow getting their feelings hurt by them lol. these private texts should not really be aired anyway, just because one person in the exchange may have made them public, doesn't mean you can be disciplined for them as if they were intended to be public, unless there's something really and obviously objectionable, criminal, and/or threatening. got it... so if these comments were about someone talking about racism on campus during the george floyd moral panic you would take the same position? no, there's nothing comparable here. but of course you call the strangulation death of someone accused of not even petty theft 'a moral panic'. you supported a guy who was convicted of murdering a pedestrian for the crime of... crossing a street in an overloaded crosswalk. thanks for flying your racist flag so proudly. it tells us all we need to know. during my relatively boring career i once worked for a medical device company involved in a stock holder law suit, the company brought in a lawyer who spoke to the employees and cautioned us that emails & texts and the like could not only be leaked but were discoverable in case of legal action. he cautioned us to be careful about expressing personal views in work communications and pointed out that sarcasm and snark can be easily misinterpreted by others. the rule he gave us was not to put anything in our messages we would not be willing to see reprinted on the front page of the newspaper. i think about this every time i see someone get crucified over their leaked communications. the other wrinkle to this is the well known ruling that if your device or account are employer provided, they're also employer owned. it may differ a little in some states, but generally this means your employer can access anything on a device or in an account at any time, not just when they're being sued. always good advice to keep these little technicalities in mind (and i'm looking at you, strzok and page, among countless others). none of this may apply here, though, because it seems the texts were purloined through taking pictures of the phone screens. if they're personal phones and personal accounts, columbia may have no legal way to provide the texts that the house committee is demanding, or even to see the texts for their own internal purposes. chang kim: "this is difficult to listen to but i'm trying to keep an open mind to learn about this point of view." sorett: "yup." kevin says that's fine. no it's not. trying to keep an open mind? about israel or palestine? fire them now, find an excuse later. seriously, i think that's it. it''s gone so far, one can be called antisemitic for having an open mind. at a university. outside it, one only gets such a label if one disapproves of killing babies. it's terribly shortsighted, aimed only at letting the present israeli govt off the hook for some months, and can only inflame (or even create) antisemitism in the long run. you do realize they are potentially in trouble for not being sufficiently anti antisematism? you should be fired. no excuse. my guess is that they were showing disdain for the vastly over the top complaints about antisemitism, over the top complaints that the columbia administration has completely bought into for reasons of donors threatening to withhold contributions. "so help me out. am i totally out to lunch and just not getting it? or is this 95% harmless, as i suspect?" i find it helpful in these cases to simply switch the identity to a group you are partial to and ask the question again. for example, on a campus where there are repeated complaints of anti black discrimination, and a panel was held on discrimination of black students, and a black minister of a local church was giving a talk, how would you feel if the dean of admissions and the dean of student life where exchanging these same messages ? would you be ok if the dean of admissions said they were uncomfortable but were trying to understand the other point of view (what, i did not know that blacks were discriminated against, but i ma trying to understand ?) and the dean of student life was sending vomit emoji's during this talk? or that the pastor was simply trying raise money for their church by creating a controversy ? i do not know if you are serious with your statement on this incident " on leave ... for something" but it sounds a lot like the "some people .. did something .. to some people .." statement by one of our elected government officials about what happened on 9/11. i do hope you are better than that and are just simply oblivious to what has been going on at columbia i would think you were looking for ghosts that aren't there. conflating a country's government with its citizens, let alone a religion or ethnicity, os a mistake no matter if the discussion was the saudi government, ethiopian government, the chinese government, etc. doing atrocities. i really do not understand what you are trying to say here, and i do not see what this incident has to do with conflation of countries and their citizens. there was public discussion about what some people believe is anti semitism at a public university, and several people in charge of the operations of the university are clearly downplaying, with contempt, these concerns.. whether or not you believe there is anti semitism at the university, and with those running the university, there are clearly some serious issues going on, and these deans do not have the professional, emotional, or ethical abilities/sensitivities to do their job. would you feel the same way if the panel was about native american rights to the land that is currently being occupied by this university, and those in charge of the university were sending vomit emojis while a native american was speaking ? or if there was a public panel on reparations by the university for the descendants of enslaved americans ? even if you do not believe native americans have any rights to the land that the university is on, or even if you do not believe in reparations, i would hope that you would be appalled by the lack of sensitivity of a dean of that university and question the ability of that dean to do their job. why would you fire people for asking if said antisemitism in fact occurred? does that mean that any investigation whether anti semitism occurred is superfluous? also, how does that at all match to your comment about 'swap the identity' because this is about a protest of a specific government, which you refused to disambiguate? "discussion about what some people believe is anti semitism at a public university" not a major point in this particular context, but columbia university is in fact a private institution. earlier on, when the president decided to call in the nypd, that status was a central justification, ie to enforce private property rights. yes, you are correct, it is not a public institution, which i agree is not significant in this particular situation, however, it is is important when looking at the more general issue of first amendment speech rights. long ago mike royko said of andrew greeley that he'd never had an unpublished thought. and today, we can all be that man. islamophobia is a much, much more pervasive problem in the us than antisemitism. even on left leaning comment threads such as this one, clearly bigoted comments against palestinians, arabs, muslims, etc are common and all too often tolerated. fox et al are filled with them, on some threads as high as 20% by my count. in contrast, you almost never see a flagrantly antisemitic post. instead you see lots of charges of antisemitism that deliberately conflate antisemitism and antizionism. posts that somehow that there are is some problem with jews or judaism as a whole are vanishingly rare, as are calls for any jews to suffer harm outside the bounds of being held accountable under the law. the fact that these universities had their feathers in a ruffle over the small problem and ignored the bigger one, especially when they could easily have been coupled, overwhelmingly proved their bigotry in my mind: but in the opposite direction that kevin is positing as an assumption. that’s the whole point, of course. if antisemitism comes to mean anti zionism, even anyone who’s jewish who criticizes israel can be fired for being antisemitic. that’s the republican’s goal, as much of a goal as ending access to birth control, unionization, or anything else that empowers anyone but the donor class. criticizing israel is neither anti semitic, not is it anti zionist, and there is a lot to criticize israel for. the belief that israel should not exist as a jewish homeland is anti zionist, by definition, as zionism is simply the belief that there should be a jewish homeland on some part of that ancient land. the question is, if you are anti zionist, are you also anti semetic ? i would say that the answer to that is whether or not you hold jews to a different standard than you do others, simply because they are jews. you can probably make a case that 4 is jewish money man trope. i’m with kevin, this is absurd. harvard gets up every morning and utters a prayer of thanks for the existence of columbia. so let’s replace panel on antisemitism with blm and same texts. they would be fired already. this school hands out discipline for not calling someone the pronoun they choose that day. these administrators create the sick culture there and now have to be held to those sick standards. comments are closed.

three deans at columbia university have been put on leave after sending hostile text messages, including a vomiting face emoji, during a panel discussion about antisemitism at a recent alumni event. images of the text exchange between josef sorett, susan chang kim, matthew patashnick and cristen kromm, all associate deans and administrators at the ivy league school, were captured by an alumnus sitting in the crowd during the may 31 panel about jewish life on campus. the group exchanged disparaging messages throughout the two hour panel, during which speakers discussed at length the impact rising antisemitism stoked by israel’s war against hamas has had on the school’s jewish students and faculty. among the speakers were former columbia law school dean david schizer, co chair of the elite school’s antisemitism task force; brian cohen, executive director of columbia’s kraft center for jewish life; ian rottenberg, the university’s dean of religious life; and student rebecca massel, who covered anti israel campus protests for the student newspaper, the columbia daily spectator. as the panelists shared their assessments of the distressing climate jewish students have faced since hamas’ oct. 7 terror attack against israel, the columbia leaders fired off mocking and dismissive messages, the washington free beacon reported. in one exchange, kromm, the dean of undergraduate student life, used the queasy and vomiting emojis in reference to an october, 2023 op ed in the spectator titled “sounding the alarm,” written by yonah hain, the school’s campus rabbi. in it, he warned the university community had “lost its moral compass” as troubling anti israel demonstrations began engulfing campus in the fall. kromm also made a sarcastic reference to the article as a jewish alumna burst into tears describing the hostility her sophomore daughter has experienced. “and we thought yonah sounded the alarm…” the derisive message read. another exchange shows pataschnick, columbia’s associate dean for student and family support, accuse an unknown member of the panel of exploiting the situation. “he knows exactly what he’s doing and how to take full advantage of this moment. huge fundraising potential,” to which chang kim, vice dean and chief administrative officer of columbia college, replied “double urgh.” in an email to columbia’s board of visitors obtained by the outlet, sorett, the dean of columbia college, apologized for the “harm” the messages caused, insisting the snide comments don’t “indicate the views of any individual or the team.” he also hit out at the “unknown third party” who took photos of the group chat, arguing the contents being made public constituted an “invasion of privacy.” in his missive, sorett “reiterated his commitment to learning from this situation and other incidents over the last year to build a community of respect and healthy dialogue,” but has not been placed on leave as of friday night, the beacon reports. in response to the university officials being placed on leave, a columbia university spokesperson told the post, “we are committed to combatting antisemitism and taking sustained, concrete action to ensure columbia is a campus where jewish students and everyone in our community feels safe, valued, and able to thrive.” columbia’s morningside heights campus became a hotbed of anti israel protest activity soon after israel began its retaliatory bombardment of the gaza strip. hundreds of demonstrators erected makeshift tent cities on the campus of the $90,000 per year school throughout the fall and spring, periodically clashing with cops as they were called in to disperse the unruly crowds. during one standout incident in late april, a huge mob of masked pro hamas rioters occupied the university’s hamilton hall building, smashing a window with a hammer and draping a huge flag calling for “intifada” from a second story window.

washington  education and the workforce committee chairwoman virginia foxx (r nc) today is again demanding accountability for columbia university administrators after releasing text messages received as part of the committee’s ongoing antisemitism investigation that show the disparaging and dismissive attitudes columbia’s administrators hold towards jewish students. the text messages, which include numerous offensive messages that have not previously been reported, show senior columbia college administrators mocking and disparaging the university’s jewish community, and trafficking in antisemitic tropes regarding jews and money. the texts accused jewish students of coming from a “place of privilege,” dismissed their concerns, disparaged officials responsible for jewish student life, and insinuated that efforts to address the explosion of antisemitism on columbia’s campus were merely a fundraising ploy. the texts came from threads involving susan chang kim, the vice dean and chief administrative officer of columbia college; cristen kromm, the dean of undergraduate student life; matthew patashnick, the associate dean for student and family support; and josef sorett, the dean of columbia college. “jewish students deserve better than to have harassment and threats against them dismissed as ‘privilege,’ and jewish faculty members deserve better than to be mocked by their colleagues,” said chairwoman foxx. “these text messages once again confirm the need for serious accountability across columbia’s campus.” following reports that four columbia deans had exchanged disparaging text messages as members of the university’s jewish community discussed antisemitism in a panel on jewish life on campus, chairwoman foxx demanded that the texts be turned over to the committee as part of its ongoing investigation into antisemitism at colleges and universities. the subsequent production offered a small but clear window into the administrators’ determination to belittle the antisemitism on campus. during the recent alumni weekend panel, the four deans discussed the jewish students’ “place of privilege” and said it’s “hard to hear the woe is me, we need to huddle at the kraft center” as panelists highlighted the importance of the refuge offered to jewish students at the kraft center for jewish life. several exchanges engaged in antisemitic stereotypes regarding jews and money. one message stated, “amazing what $$$$ can do'' as panelists referenced an october 2023 op ed on antisemitism by a campus rabbi, yonah hain. another charged that brian cohen, the lavine family executive director of columbia/barnard hillel, columbia’s center for jewish life, “knows exactly what he’s doing and how to take full advantage of this moment. huge fundraising potential.” an administrator also dismissed the explosion of antisemitic conduct at columbia, saying cohen “is such a problem !!!” for “[p]ainting our students as dangerous.” the text messages can be viewed here. ###

columbia university administrators said jewish students occupied a “place of privilege,” called a hillel official a “problem” and wrote “amazing what $$$$ can do,” during a panel on jewish campus life in may, newly released text messages showed. columbia had already suspended three of the four administrators involved after photos of some of the texts were first published last month. now, the house committee on education and the workforce, which is investigating antisemitism at columbia and other campuses, has obtained and released the full text message exchanges. while elements of the text messages have been previously reported, the full exchanges show the university officials downplaying students’ concerns about antisemitism, bashing the head of the school’s hillel and suggesting that jewish students received attention because of money. the conversations were conducted while the administrators were attending a may 31 panel discussion titled “jewish life on campus: past, present, and future.” “comes from such a place of privilege,” wrote susan chang kim, the university’s vice dean and chief administrative officer. “hard to hear the woe is me, we need to huddle at the kraft center,” columbia’s jewish student center, where hillel is housed. pro palestinian student protesters who had been arrested for occupying and barricading a building at columbia university exit following a hearing, where criminal charges against them had been dropped, at the manhattan criminal courthouse in new york city, u.s., june 20, 2024. (credit: reuters/brendan mcdermid) “yup. blind to the idea that non israel supporting jews have no space to come together,” responded cristen kromm, a dean of undergraduate student life. “if only every identity community had these resources and support,” kromm added several minutes later. the new texts also shed light on a previously reported exchange between kromm and chang kim, which the house committee said was about an october op ed by hillel rabbi yonah hain on campus antisemitism, titled “sounding the alarm.” “and we thought yonah sounded the alarm,” kromm wrote near the end of the exchange, followed by two vomit emojis. stay updated with the latest news! “amazing what $$$$ can do,” kromm said at one point, apparently when brian cohen, the executive director of columbia’s hillel, was speaking about students receiving attention in the media and in washington, d.c. at another point while cohen was speaking, chang kim wrote, “he is such a problem!” “painting our students as dangerous,” she added. “he knows exactly what he’s doing and has to take full advantage of this moment. huge fundraising potential,” said matthew patashnick, an associate vice dean for student and family support, in one of the messages reported last month. at other points in the exchange, which lasted for close to two hours, chang kim wrote “smoke and mirrors,” and “trying to be open minded to understand but the doors are closing.” in another text shared with the new york jewish week last month, chang kim texted josef sorett, the university’s dean, while cohen was speaking. “he is our hero,” chang kim said, in an apparently sarcastic message. nine minutes later, sorett wrote, “lmao,” an acronym for “laughing my ass off.” it was unclear whether his text was a delayed response to chang kim or whether he was reacting to something else. he did not respond to a request for comment. in addition to cohen, the panelists were former law school dean david schizer, who co chairs the university’s antisemitism task force; rebecca massel, a student journalist for the columbia spectator, the campus newspaper; and ian rottenberg, the director of the school’s center for religious life. an audience member sitting behind one of the deans took photos of the administrators’ texts and first shared them last month with the washington free beacon, a conservative news outlet that has reported aggressively about the incident and its fallout. the university suspended chang kim, kromm and patashnick last month after the texts came to light. the university said on tuesday that sorett would remain in his position as the dean of the college, but would be recused from all matters relating to the investigation into the texts. sorett was cooperating with the investigation, and had told his team that the other three administrators had been placed on leave pending the probe, a columbia official told the new york jewish week. “we are committed to combatting antisemitism and taking sustained, concrete action to ensure columbia is a campus where jewish students and everyone in our community feels safe, valued, and able to thrive,” the official said. “the dean reiterated his commitment to learning from this situation and other incidents over the last year to build a community of respect and healthy dialogue.” the house committee that released the transcript of the texts has gained global attention in recent months for holding explosive hearings on campus antisemitism with the leaders of several elite universities. it has vowed to keep pressing the issue. “jewish students deserve better than to have harassment and threats against them dismissed as ‘privilege,’ and jewish faculty members deserve better than to be mocked by their colleagues,” said the committee chairwoman, virginia foxx, in a tuesday statement. “these text messages once again confirm the need for serious accountability across columbia’s campus.” the suspensions come as columbia continues to grapple with months of antisemitism allegations on campus following hamas’ oct. 7 attack on israel and the ensuing war in gaza. the school gained worldwide attention in april when pro palestinian students set up an encampment that sparked a nationwide movement and, critics said, created a hostile and threatening environment for jewish students. more than 100 students were arrested at the encampment and subsequently during activists’ takeover of a campus building. soon afterward, the school canceled its main commencement ceremony. the campus is quieter now that classes have ended, but the school’s antisemitism task force, set up in the weeks after oct. 7, is due to release a report about incidents in which jewish students were targeted. student protesters, meanwhile, have vowed to keep demonstrating even as classes have let out. student groups around the city last month, including at columbia, declared a “summer of resistance,” urging followers to take “non stop action” in the coming months. var theurl = document.url;var theurlarray = theurl.split("//");var theurlpre = theurlarray[1];var theurlpostarray = theurlpre.split("/");var theurlpost = theurlpostarray[0];(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['googleanalyticsobject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new date();a=s.createelement(o),m=s.getelementsbytagname(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentnode.insertbefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','//www.google analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');ga('create', 'ua 2449829 1', theurlpost, {'name':'uniquetrackername'});ga('uniquetrackername.send', 'pageview');

supported by the university said shai davidai had repeatedly harassed and intimidated employees. he said the university had not done enough to crack down on pro palestinian protests. by vimal patel and sharon otterman columbia university apartheid divest has withdrawn an apology it made last spring for a member who said “zionists don’t deserve to live.” by sharon otterman in a fraught meeting, the student government rejected a plan to redirect its budget from campus activities to aid for gaza. but the fight is not over. by halina bennet the school, citing safety, had said no to an event planned on the anniversary of the oct. 7 attack by a chapter of students for justice in palestine, but a judge’s ruling last week allowed it to go ahead. by vimal patel and joanna daemmrich pro israel and pro palestinian students at columbia hold side by side protests during tense but somber vigils on the university library steps, students and their supporters expressed outrage and sorrow. by anvee bhutani and sharla steinman campuses are calmer, but they are not normal, students and faculty say a year of war in gaza has left college students and faculty feeling shaken and angry, with the world and with each other. by sharon otterman and dave sanders a campus protest movement seeks to regain momentum but faces hurdles pro palestinian demonstrations appeared at some u.s. campuses, but new restrictions and a new set of students may slow momentum for the type of mass protests seen in the spring. by sharon otterman most columbia students arrested during protests will return to campus some students who were arrested after setting up tents on campus or occupying a university building last spring are still on probation. others could face consequences later this year. by sharon otterman from ‘perfect candidate’ to sudden exit: inside the fall of columbia’s president nemat shafik was vilified on almost all sides for her handling of the protests over the israel hamas war. when given an offramp, she took it. by alan blinderstephanie saulsharon otterman and mark landler the founder of mothers against college antisemitism advised the group’s over 61,000 followers to take advantage of a new executive order allowing the deportation of hamas supporters. by ginia bellafante an executive order signed this week would push colleges and universities to combat antisemitism specifically by monitoring and reporting international students. by sharon otterman and anemona hartocollis the executive order was among several the president signed meant to steer american schools and universities to adopt republican priorities, such as restricting how schools discuss racism and gender issues. by zach montague and erica l. green some students and professors are questioning whether campus diversity, equity and inclusion offices should do more to combat antisemitism, or whether d.e.i. itself is the problem. by vimal patel many universities have been reluctant to embrace a definition that, among other things, considers some criticisms of israel as antisemitic. the university’s decision was part of a lawsuit settlement. by vimal patel katherine franke, a law professor and vocal advocate of pro palestinian students, had been under investigation over remarks she made about israeli students. by stephanie saul israeli accountability, a powerful protest movement and an emerging generation of leaders could bring a better future for palestinians. by khaled elgindy the president and vice president of the university of michigan’s student assembly were impeached after they demanded divestment and stopped funding campus activities. by halina bennet some college students and faculty members are seeking space for nuanced perspectives on the israel hamas war on deeply divided campuses. by sharon otterman five schools agreed to changes after reports that they failed to protect students from antisemitism and anti arab and anti muslim discrimination. by orlando mayorquín dialogue is an essential part of college. as anger over the war in the middle east has brought upheaval to campuses, it has also become a key way schools try to reduce conflict. by anemona hartocollis plus, payouts for finding pandemic fraud. by tracy mumford, david e. sanger, christina goldbaum, robert jimison, ian stewart and jessica metzger stricter rules and punishments over campus protests seem to be working. universities have seen just under 950 protest events this semester, compared with 3,000 in the spring. by isabelle taft first up is a resolution put forth by senator bernie sanders, a vermont independent who is jewish, to deny israel certain military weapons. by jonathan weisman higher education has been a favorite target of republicans who believe schools have tilted leftward. now, colleges and universities are bracing for the trump administration to take action. by vimal patel and sharon otterman faculty members are used to sharing power with presidents and trustees to run universities. but some presidents and lawmakers have made moves to reduce their say. by alan blinder messages among leaders at harvard and other universities, published by house republicans, reveal discussions on how to balance public statements about the war and how to negotiate with protesters. by anemona hartocollis when a columbia professor needed a lawyer because of her comments about the actions of former israeli soldiers on campus, tensions over the israel hamas war got in the way. by ginia bellafante readers discuss a column by bret stephens. also: a flood of election mailers in pennsylvania; speech on campus; fighting malaria. universities have cracked down on professors for pro palestinian activism, saying they are protecting students and tamping down on hate speech. faculty members say punishments have put a “chill in the air.” by anemona hartocollis would school administrators be silent if there was a ku klux klan gathering on their campus celebrating white supremacist violence? by erwin chemerinsky a times investigation found that the school built one of the most ambitious diversity programs in the country   only to see increased discord and division on campus. by nicholas confessore a decade and a quarter of a billion dollars later, students and faculty are more frustrated than ever. by nicholas confessore israelis gathered on monday to mourn those killed or abducted on the deadliest day in the country’s history. by patrick kingsley, isabel kershner, aaron boxerman and thomas fuller jewish voters in pittsburgh feel squeezed by intolerance on the left and the right, and torn by presidential candidates seeking their support in a vital battleground state. by jonathan weisman within our lifetime, a group formed by new york students, has galvanized pro palestinian activists who are calling for the end of israel   and facing accusations of antisemitism. by sharon otterman dozens of discrimination complaints brought by conservative and pro jewish groups after the oct. 7 attacks last year have spawned lengthy federal inquiries that some worry could chill free speech on campus. by zach montague american jews need to recover their instinct for danger. by bret stephens readers react to the corruption charges against new york’s mayor. also: a path for iran; the state of speech on campus; a tally of trump insults. rutgers’s president was worn out by turmoil and animosity. by pamela paul the museum said the pulitzer prize winning author withdrew her acceptance after it fired staff members for wearing clothing expressing political views. by marc tracy the report, commissioned by new york’s governor, found that the city’s university system was ill equipped to handle rising antisemitism. but it also said the problem was not widespread. by sharon otterman it’s time for organizers to invent a new model. by zeynep tufekci jonathan holloway was rutgers’ first black president. he helped the university grow but also faced criticism and questioning in congress over pro palestinian encampments on campus. by sharon otterman an event for the magazine jewish currents took a surprising turn. by m. gessen readers offer different answers in response to a guest essay. also: protests on campus; china’s adoption policy; trump the fixer; hearing loss. ahead of a new school year, colleges across the country have adopted a wave of new rules around protest and speech. by isabelle taft her trip to the west bank, where she was shot on friday, was ms. eygi’s latest effort in years of activism that began nearly a decade ago when was still a teenager. by ephrat livni colleges and universities are democracy’s greatest arsenal. they do not need the unanimity of the graveyard. by cass r. sunstein it’s time for students to take back their independence. by rita koganzon higher education should be tolerant but never neutral. by michael s. roth after students at the university of north carolina shielded a u.s. flag from protesters, admirers raised money to throw a “rager” in their honor. some didn’t want it. by eduardo medina the group, which had previously resisted defining “antisemitism,” issued a definition, and called on the university to institute anti bias training and revamp its systems for handling complaints. by claire fahy pro palestinian protesters won council elections, and have refused to fund campus groups, like the men’s ultimate frisbee team, unless their divestment demands are met. by halina bennet university officials are spelling out strict codes around protests. they say they are trying to be clear. others say they are trying to suppress speech. by alan blinder pro palestinian organizers predicted overwhelming turnout that would take their case directly to the democrats. protesters gathered, but they did not steal the show. by julie bosman, mitch smith, ernesto londoño, nicholas bogel burroughs and jon cherry a community of learners is guided by the spirit of inquiry. by bret stephens antes del evento, los responsables de la campaña de harris y los líderes demócratas reforzaron su compromiso con los votantes árabes y judíos, pero aún se esperan grandes protestas. by jonathan weisman readers discuss how to combat high prices. also: the decision not to pick josh shapiro; preparing for campus protests; crypto’s political power. three new court rulings make it clear that chaos on campus has legal consequences. by david french mayor eric adams is a strong supporter of israel. one of his primary opponents, brad lander, the comptroller, calls himself a “progressive zionist.” by emma g. fitzsimmons if having a “commitment” to israel is a barrier to the democratic presidential ticket, then it bodes ominously for future jewish participation in democratic party politics. by james kirchick students in denver behind one of the longest running encampments in protest of the israel hamas war disbanded the camp in may. they spent the rest of the summer planning for what comes next. by audra d. s. burch and kelley manley the resignation of the columbia university president, nemat shafik, was met with mixed reactions, but some on campus are optimistic for a fresh start. by sharon otterman, stephanie saul and wesley parnell john f. manning has served as interim provost since march, and is considered a top contender for university president. by anemona hartocollis dr. katrina a. armstrong replaces nemat shafik as president of one of the most turbulent campuses in america. by alan blinder nemat shafik is the third ivy league president to resign in the wake of turbulent congressional appearances and strife connected to the israel hamas war. by alan blinder and sharon otterman the judge’s temporary ruling said that protests that prevent jewish students from accessing parts of the campus violated religious freedom rights. by anemona hartocollis it’s not just a few hecklers. michigan voters’ concerns about gaza cannot be dismissed. by farah stockman the deans were put on leave earlier in the summer after sending messages that disparaged jewish panelists. a fourth dean, who is tenured, will remain at the university. by sharon otterman many jewish organizations backed harris’s pick for running mate, but beneath that public sentiment is unease over antisemitism on both the left and the right. by jonathan weisman governor josh shapiro would send a signal that vice president harris is not captive to the left and that she puts experience ahead of ideology. by mark penn the pennsylvania governor, a top contender to be vice president kamala harris’s running mate, wrote in his college newspaper that palestinians were “too battle minded.” by neil vigdor gov. josh shapiro of pennsylvania, an observant jew, is seen as bringing plenty of upsides to the democratic ticket. but some worry about setting off opposition to the democratic ticket from pro palestinian demonstrators. by jonathan weisman and hiroko masuike in a letter to sullivan & cromwell, mr. nader and two other prominent legal figures condemned its efforts to screen job applicants for their participation in antiwar protests. by emily flitter whatever comes next in lebanon is a piece in a much larger battle. by bret stephens a police procedural drama staged a tent encampment for a film shoot at queens college. pro palestinian demonstrators felt it trivialized their movement. by claire fahy the spate of pro palestinian protests and encampments engulfed academic institutions of all sizes in nearly every part of the country. by isabelle taft, alex lemonides, lazaro gamio and anna betts the lawsuit was part of a wave of litigation against universities over accusations of antisemitism related to campus protests over the war in gaza. by sharon otterman with the survivor generation shrinking and antisemitism on the rise around the world, israel’s holocaust memorial is stepping up efforts to safeguard its vast collection of artifacts and testimony. by isabel kershner readers discuss a column by pamela paul. also: criticism of the times’s biden trump coverage; why voting matters; helping migrants in new york. sullivan & cromwell is requiring job applicants to explain their participation in protests. critics see the policy as a way to silence speech about the war. by emily flitter nemat shafik, the university president, called the sentiments in the text messages “unacceptable and deeply upsetting.” by katherine rosman readers discuss an article about how the gaza war has been divisive at a hospital and medical school. in her four years at the state university, maurie mcinnis drew criticism from faculty members who said some of her decisions violated academic freedom. by stephanie saul the one minute commercial, which was created by a group formed by former gov. andrew m. cuomo, seeks to bring attention to atrocities linked to hamas. by grace ashford an incident at columbia suggests that schools beset with antisemitism are beyond salvation. by bret stephens doctors at the university of california, san francisco, say that the workplace they once loved has been fractured by the israel hamas war. by heather knight the manhattan district attorney’s office cited a lack of evidence in deciding not to prosecute 31 of the 46 people charged in the takeover of hamilton hall. by chelsia rose marcius leaked images showed the trio sharing disparaging text messages during an alumni group discussion last month about jewish life on campus. by hurubie meko one report documented antisemitic threats. the other, anti muslim threats. both signaled that there may be little room for agreement. by anemona hartocollis i don’t like operating in unison, and i’ve never been much of a tribalist or a joiner. by pamela paul readers discuss preparations by progressive activists and others. also: a nuclear threat; geoengineering; gaza protests in belgium; a tribe’s whale hunt. invoking nazis and pogroms in discussing the hamas attacks is wrong and offensive and helps the israeli government avoid responsibility for its failures. by jonathan dekel chen the department concluded that both schools failed to appropriately respond to complaints that campus protests had veered into antisemitism and anti arab discrimination. by zach montague pro palestinian student activists at one belgian university have borrowed from the u.s. playbook of encampments and slogans. the results, however, have been starkly different. by matina stevis gridneff a tentative new contract at an ohio battery maker on monday was big for president biden’s e.v. transition, but for some, the victory was upstaged by the u.a.w.’s activism on college campuses. by jonathan weisman protesters marched through campus, pitched tents and occupied various quads in demonstrations that became confrontational at times. by jonathan wolfe and jill cowan readers discuss a column by pamela paul about college protesters’ job prospects and future careers. an orange county judge halted the labor action by academic workers after the university system said the walkout was causing students “irreparable harm.” by shawn hubler
leaked images showed the trio sharing disparaging text messages during an alumni group discussion last month about jewish life on campus columbia university placed three administrators on leave this week, a university spokesman said on saturday. the moves came a little more than a week after images emerged showing the school officials sharing disparaging text messages during a panel discussion about antisemitism on campus. the panel, which focused on jewish life on campus amid tensions over israel’s war in gaza, occurred during a columbia college reunion on may 31. the spokesman did not identify which officials were placed on leave, but the washington free beacon, the website that first published the images, reported that they were susan chang kim, the vice dean and chief administrative officer; cristen kromm, the dean of undergraduate student life; and matthew patashnick, the associate dean for student and family support. ms. chang kim also exchanged texts during the event with josef sorett, the dean of columbia college, according to the free beacon. in one exchange, mr. sorett texted “lmao,” for “laughing my ass off,” in response to a sarcastic message ms. chang kim had written about brian cohen, the executive director of columbia/barnard hillel, according to the free beacon. mr. sorett is cooperating with the investigation of the text exchanges, according to a university official. he will be recused from matters relating to the investigation while continuing to serve as dean. mr. sorett oversees columbia college’s curriculum and his central role is “to ensure that students have the best possible experience inside and outside the classroom,” according to the university’s website. in a statement sent to the columbia college board of visitors on friday afternoon, mr. sorett told the advisory board that he deeply regretted his role in the text exchanges and their effect on the community. “i am committed to learning from this situation and to the work of confronting antisemitism, discrimination and hate at columbia,” he said. attempts to reach the other administrators were unsuccessful on saturday. because the investigation is pending, the columbia spokesman said the university would not address specifics about it or the initial episode. the free beacon, a conservative news site, said it had obtained the images from a person who sat behind ms. chang kim at the event and took photos of her phone screen as she texted with the other administrators. as the panelists spoke, the deans exchanged messages, the pictures show. “difficult to listen to but i’m trying to keep an open mind to learn about this point of view,” ms. chang kim texted to mr. sorett at one point. he responded “yup.” in another exchange, ms. kromm texted her colleagues a message that referred to an october 2023 opinion essay by yonah hain, columbia’s campus rabbi, called “sounding the alarm,” and followed up with two different vomit emojis, the images show. mr. patashnick accused one of the panelists of “taking full advantage of this moment,” according to the images. “huge fundraising potential,” he wrote.