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Columbia suspends three administrative staff members for derogatory texts during a panel discussion on Jewish life on campus

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Columbia University has suspended three administrators for sending derogatory text messages during a panel discussion on Jewish campus life last month.

While the panel discussion on 31 MayAdministrators sent each other text messages mocking panelists’ remarks, in one case calling them “hard to listen to.” One of the deans wrote that a panelist exploited the discussion of anti-Semitism to gain “tremendous fundraising potential.”

A spectator sitting behind one of the deans took photos of the administrators’ texts and initially shared them with the Washington Free Beacona conservative news outlet that aggressively covered the incident and its aftermath. One of the photos was also independently leaked to the New York Jewish Week.

Three of the administrators have been suspended pending an investigation into the incident. They are Susan Chang-Kim, the university’s vice dean and chief administrative officer; Matthew Patashnick, the assistant vice dean for student and family support; and Cristen Kromm, the dean of student life. Josef Sorett, the university’s dean, also participated in the exchange but was not suspended.

“We are committed to combating anti-Semitism and taking sustained, concrete action to ensure that Columbia is a campus where Jewish students and everyone in our community feel safe, valued and able to thrive,” a university official told New York Jewish Week on Friday.

“The Dean of Columbia College informed his team yesterday that three administrators have been placed on leave pending the university’s investigation into the incident that occurred at the college’s alumni reunion several weeks ago. The Dean reiterated his commitment to learning from this situation and other incidents over the past year to build a community of respect and healthy dialogue,” the official said via email.

The suspensions come as the Ivy League university in Morningside Heights continues to grapple with months of allegations of anti-Semitism on campus following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip.

The school gained worldwide attention in April when pro-Palestinian students set up a protest camp there, sparking a nationwide movement and, critics say, creating a hostile and threatening environment for Jews on campus. More than 100 students were arrested in the camp And during the occupation of a campus building by activistsShortly thereafter, the school cancelled its main graduation ceremony last month.

After classes end, the campus is quieter, but the Task Force Against Anti-Semitism, established in the weeks following October 7, is expected to soon publish a report on incidents in which Jewish students were victims of attacks.

Among the incidents is a professor singling out a student with a Jewish surname and asking him about the war in Gaza, According to a report in Haaretzand another professor told a class that the mainstream media was “owned by Jews.” Other lecturers urged students to join the protest camp or held classes there, the report said.

During the May 31 panel discussion titled “Jewish Life on Campus: Past, Present and Future,” the four administrators sent text messages to each other while panelists discussed anti-Semitism on campus, according to photos first released. in the Free Beacon.

Some of the text messages could be interpreted in multiple ways. “This is hard to hear, but I’m trying to keep an open mind,” Chang-Kim wrote in a text to Sorrett. “Yup,” Sorrett replied.

Others, however, expressed themselves much more disparagingly. One image showed Patashnick saying, referring to an unidentified panelist, “He knows exactly what he’s doing and needs to take full advantage of this moment. Huge fundraising potential.”

“Urgh,” Chang-Kim replied.

In another exchange, Kromm sent vomit emojis, referring to a comment by Hillel Rabbi Yonah Hain about anti-Semitism on campus titled “hit the alarm.”

“And we thought Yonah raised the alarm,” Kromm wrote to two others, followed by two puke emojis.

In another text message shared with New York Jewish Week on Friday, Chang-Kim texted Sorett during a talk by Brian Cohen, executive director of Columbia’s Hillel. “He’s our hero,” Chang-Kim said in an apparently sarcastic message. “Lmao,” Sorett replied, an acronym for “laughing my ass off.” Sorett did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The graduate who took the photos, who wished to remain anonymous to avoid personal reactions, told New York Jewish Week that she was “shocked” when she witnessed the exchange. She took the photos because she feels that “Jews are not believed for some reason and that’s why it’s important to document this.”

She added: “My image of a college dean and the dignity that this position should embody was completely contradictory to what I experienced.”

A Columbia University alumni leader with close knowledge of the case said Sorett discussed the matter with trustees on Monday. Trustees were upset with Sorett’s handling of the case and felt he downplayed a serious problem at the university.

Before the “Lmao” text message came to light, the alumni leader said trustees believed Sorett should not be disciplined because he did not send derogatory texts during the exchange. Now, discussions are underway among trustees about a replacement dean, the alumni said.

In addition to Cohen, panelists included former law school dean David Schizer, co-chair of the anti-Semitism task force, Rebecca Massel, a student journalist for the Columbia Spectator, the campus newspaper, and Ian Rottenberg, director of the school’s Center for Religious Life.

The Congressional Committee on Education and the Workforce, which has investigated anti-Semitism at Columbia University and other universities and held a series of explosive hearings on anti-Semitism on campus, asked the university to provide the text messages to the Committee by 26 June.

Student protesters have now vowed to continue demonstrating after classes have ended. Student groups across the city, including at Columbia, declared the “Summer of Resistance”, and calls on supporters to “act non-stop” in the coming months. The events begin with a protest rally on Friday at Hunter College. Student groups at Columbia and other New York universities have increasingly tended to openly support Palestinian terrorist groups in recent weeks.

On Thursday, the student group leading the protests at Columbia University, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, posted photos on Instagram about vandalism at the subway station at the entrance to the university and described the damage as an “anonymous post”.

The graffiti read “Intifada,” referring to two Palestinian uprisings against Israel, including one in the early 2000s that saw numerous suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. Other graffiti read “FU Columbia” and featured inverted red triangles, a symbol originally used by Hamas.

The consequences of the camp are not over yet. On Thursday, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Most of the allegations were rejected against the arrested students.

A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said 31 of the 46 cases against the protesters were dropped, due in part to the defendant’s lack of criminal history and insufficient evidence. Some of the defendants immediately covered the building’s security cameras when they took over the building, and many wore masks, leaving prosecutors “with extremely limited surveillance footage,” the prosecutor’s office said.

Fourteen other defendants were offered dismissal offers, but 13 of them rejected the offers, so the cases remain pending. Another defendant, James Carlson, also faces charges.

While a press conference on ThursdayOne of the activists said: “Pacifism is not the path to liberation. To achieve victory, we must escalate.”

He added: “We refuse to condemn the Palestinian resistance.”

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