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‘Resign or be fired,’ Coalition for Jewish Values tells Columbia president

“The bigotry and double standards are blatant,” the group said of four university officials who mocked concerns about Jew-hatred on campus.

Minouche Shafik
Minouche Shafik, president of Columbia University, testifies about campus antisemitism before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 17, 2024. Credit: House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Minouche Shafik, president of Columbia University, should either step down or be fired by the school’s board, the Coalition for Jewish Values says.

The group, which represents 2,500 Orthodox rabbis, noted that Shafik allowed a dean to remain in his role after exchanging text messages mocking the panelists during an event on Jew-hatred. Three other Columbia officials involved lost their administrative roles, but remain on the payroll and the faculty.

“The bigotry and double standards are blatant, and entirely at odds with the experiences that I and others had at Columbia in the past,” said Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, an alumnus of the university and the coalition’s Israel regional vice president. “Imagine if something like this had happened during a session when black, Latino, Pacific Islander or LGBTQ faculty and students were speaking about hostility they faced on campus.”

“That’s how we combat antisemitism,” Rabbi Rachel Short told JNS. “We let people see who we are and what we do.”
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The former president’s son pointed to a “bombshell” report that he said had been published a few days earlier, apparently referring to claims by Haaretz.
Rabbi Binyamin Krauss, principal of SAR Academy, told JNS that the gathering is meant to be a “positive statement” that “We’re here. We’re Jewish. We want to be safe and express our Zionism.”