antisemitism

Antisemitism at Columbia Alive and Well

Columbia University continues to fail Jewish students, The Free Press reports, after effectively allowing the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition to hold a two-day celebration of terrorism.

Shoshanna Aufzien and Alon Levin filed a Title IV complaint with the school in November after scoping out the event “Hind’s House” — a series of pro-Hamas exhibitions ostensibly honoring Hind Rijab, a five-year-old Gazan girl killed in the Israel-Hamas war.

Student protesters renamed Hamilton Hall, “Hind’s Hall,” last April after breaking into the building and holding several custodians hostage. The infamous “occupation” resulted in more than 100 arrests.

Title IV of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in institutions and activities that receive federal aid. These protections extend to the creation of “hostile environments” based on these characteristics, which the Department of Education defines as:

When school staff, a student or another person engages in unwelcome conduct based on race, color or national origin that … is subjectively and objectively offensive and is so severe or pervasive that it limits or denies a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from the recipient’s education program or activity.

In their Title IV complaint, Aufzien and Levin alleged the “terrorist propaganda and antisemitic tropes [displayed at ‘Hind’s House’] in such a blatant manner [made them] feel targeted and unsafe.”

It’s no wonder. The students’ testimony, in addition to photos and videos obtained by The Free Press, show “Hind’s House” presented, in part, a wall covered in distorted and bloodstained paintings of menorahs and Jewish stars; a poetry reading “borrowing” from Yahya Sinwar, the deceased Hamas leader behind the October 7, 2023 massacre of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens; a “resistance training” session teaching attendees how to avoid detection while protesting; and a poem superimposed over an image of a hang-glider, which Hamas terrorists used to breach Israel’s borders on October 7.

“So on that day, the people of Gaza drifted into the sky like a host of colorful dragon flies,” the poem read.

The event most prominently featured a shrine, of sorts, to the take-over of Hamilton Hall. Event-runners filled a pool table with wire cutters, wrenches, hammers and other tools used to break into and vandalize the building.

Among the tools were the red headbands protester’s sported, emblazoned with the logo of another regional terrorist group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. (Ironically, Hamas sprouted in opposition to PFLP and other groups interested in establishing a secular regime in Palestine. The two don’t like each other.)

The pro-Hamas protest queen herself, Nerdeen Kiswani, thanked the Hamilton Hall vandals in a speech at “Hind’s House.”

Kiswani runs Within Our Lifetime, the pro-Hamas group behind some of the most damaging and disruptive demonstrations in New York. She was banned from Columbia’s campus in November 2023 after she called for “intifada revolution,” or armed rebellion against Israel. She defied this ban in April to participate in Columbia’s “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”

True to form, Kiswani concluded, “As long as Israel exists, it’s a genocide against the Palestinian people…”

Click here to learn about the real genocide that took place in 2024.

Columbia has made promise after promise to address campus antisemitism. This summer, the school’s Antisemitism Taskforce released a report documenting the abuse Jewish and Israeli students suffered during pro-Hamas protests and recommending the university make changes to address the “serious and pervasive” problems the investigation uncovered.

One section of this report specifically concludes:

Some [documented complaints], though not all, suggest violations of federal and state law. In such cases, Columbia should provide follow-up, investigation and rigor in dealing with inappropriate behavior toward targeted groups. The frequent failures to do so, documented here, point to the troubling use of inconsistent standards which reinforce the need for specific change.

But outside a single Zoom call with the Columbia’s Office of Institutional Equity — which, to its credit, was reportedly engaged and concerned — Aufzien and Levin do not know the status of their Title IV complaint.

“We don’t know what happened next with the information we provided,” Levin told The Free Press.

Columbia, for its part, claims the investigation is ongoing, but tricky, because “Hind’s House” took place in an off-campus house owned and operated by an alumni group. The school reportedly pays for several of the houses’ amenities, including Wi-Fi.

“Essentially, the house exists in an ambiguous gray zone,” Levin explains, “allowing Columbia not to take accountability for the events that take place there, despite its clear affiliation with the school.”

It’s unclear whether Columbia will face any punishment for violating Title IV, but that’s beside the point. In “Hind’s House,” Columbia had a perfect opportunity to demonstrate its revitalized commitment to antisemitism. Instead, it has proven itself as feckless as ever — full of promises but ultimately unwilling to confront even the most blatant antisemitism.

I wish I could say I was surprised.

Additional Articles and Resources

New York Drops Charges Against Pro-Hamas Protesters Who Stormed Hamilton Hall

INVESTIGATION: Who funds anti-Israel protests?

Jewish Students Urged to Flee Columbia University Following Antisemitic Protest

Antisemitism — What It Is and Its Connection to the Israel-Hamas War

Israel is Under Attack—Here’s Why Christians Should Support Its Defense

Luigi Mangione: Alleged Killer Apprehended with All-Too-Familiar Manifesto

This is the first in a two-part series examining America’s reaction to the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Part 1 introduces the NYPD’s suspect and his alleged motives. Part 2 explores Americans‘ celebration of the violence.

New York police have charged 26-year-old Luigi Mangione with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, five days after a masked gunman shot him to death on a Manhattan street.

Police arrested Mangione in Pennsylvania on Monday. The alleged killer was carrying a gun, a silencer, a fake ID matching the one the killer used to check into a New York hostel before the murder, and a handwritten manifesto mentioning UnitedHealthcare by name.

Mangione cut off contact with his friends and family in June, according to multiple sources, prompting his mother to file a missing person’s report in November. The young man’s background explains neither his mysterious disappearance nor his alleged capacity to commit murder. By most metrics, Mangione had everything going for him.

Born to a wealthy family, Mangione graduated valedictorian of his 2016 high school class at the prestigious and expensive Gilman School. He subsequently graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, according to The New York Times, with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science.

Though social media posts indicate Mangione experienced debilitating back pain beginning in 2022, he underwent successful spinal surgery for the problem almost a year before he dropped off the map. On Reddit, Mangione claimed the procedure alleviated his pain almost immediately.

The three-page document Pennsylvania police discovered in Mangione’s backpack suggests the author, presumably Mangione himself, had developed a deep hatred for the American healthcare system.

After assuring the police he acted alone, the writer accuses UnitedHealthcare and other insurance companies of “abus[ing] our country for immense profit.” The writer claims such companies “get away with it” because “the American public has allowed them [to],” and declares himself the first to confront these “power games” with “such brutal honesty.”

“I do apologize for any strife or traumas but it had to be done,” The New York Post quotes the document. “Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.”

Mangione’s social media activity carries little, if any, of the manifesto’s malice. It does, however, suggest Mangione identified with some anti-establishment ideas.

In April, he quoted Aldous Huxley’s famed critique of capitalism, Brave New World, on X. On Goodreads, a website where readers share and review books, he quoted “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski’s manifesto.

Imagine a society that subject people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness.

Mangione further praised Kaczynski’s ramblings in a Goodreads review.

It’s easy to quickly and thoughtlessly write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies. But it’s simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his prediction about modern society turned out.

Mangione’s motive for allegedly killing Thompson might be opaque, but the manifesto’s justification for murder should sound familiar.

It’s all about helping the oppressed overthrow the oppressors.

This is the same worldview that drove America’s descent into antisemitism. When Hamas killed more than 1,200 Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, student groups at elite schools like Columbia and Harvard justified the massacre by deeming Israel “the oppressor” and the terror group “the oppressed.”

This narrative prompted activist and student groups to make supportive graphics and chants referencing the parachutes Hamas soldiers used to gun down civilians across the Israeli border. It allowed journalists, activists and professors to justify Hamas’ actions as “decolonization.”

It also enflamed the prosecution of Daniel Penny. Penny faced criminal charges after he restrained Jordan Neely, a violent passenger on a New York subway car, contributing to his death. Neely, who was intoxicated and suffered from schizophrenia, had been threatening to kill other passengers.

Many characterized Penny’s actions as those of a white oppressor against an oppressed black man. When a jury acquitted Penny of criminally negligent homicide on Monday, Black Lives Matter activist Hawk Newsome opined:

What we preach is unity. Black unity. … Just like everybody else seeks justice on their own, just like everyone else has vigilantes, we need some black vigilantes. People want to jump up and chose us and kill us for being loud, how about we do the same when they attempt to oppress us.

Here, Newsome endorses violence against white people as the justified retribution of oppressed black people.

One of the myriad problems with this ideology is its lack of moral absolutes; The morality of violence depends solely on whether the person being hurt is an “oppressor” or someone being “oppressed.”

The assassination of Brian Thompson is the logical product of this ethos. Thompson’s life depended on one person’s unilateral assessment of his role in society. The killer felt morally entitled to carry out a death sentence one he had identified Thompson as a “parasite.”

It’s easy to dismiss Thompson’s murder as the actions of an unhinged idealogue, rather than a reflection on popular perceptions of morality and justice. If that were true, the internet wouldn’t have erupted in praise of the gunman.

More on the morally-bankrupt celebration of murder in Part 2.

Additional Articles and Resources

A Year’s Slide into Antisemitism, Examined

Manhood is on Trial in the Daniel Penny Case

Indoctrination Station: New York State Education Department Pushes Critical Theory on Students