A student dismissed from the Physician Assistant program at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, N.Y., after reporting a professor’s antisemitic remarks has been allowed to return to the school, following the legal support of the Lawfare Project.
The group reported on Wednesday that the unidentified student “returned from a leave of absence due to being sick, and she reported antisemitism in class. When she reported it, they disregarded it as antisemitism and told her the professor must have been ‘joking,’” Ziporah Reich, director of litigation at the Lawfare Project, told JNS.
The 27-month program provides a “comprehensive introduction to medical practice,” according to the school.
“SUNY retaliated against her by subjecting her to unusual conditions by forcing her to complete her missed work under poor conditions that most students would do poorly under and where the criteria for the grade was subjective, they found she failed,” Reich said. “SUNY has not disclosed to us if the professors who made those comments will face any discipline.”
The Lawfare Project “will continue to monitor this situation at SUNY and remain vigilant for the needs of all Jewish students who feel they may be retaliated against,” Reich told JNS.
Brooke Goldstein, its founder and executive director, emphasized that “we urge any Jewish student, faculty or staff member at SUNY or other universities to reach out to us if they feel that they are the victims of antisemitic discrimination.”
