When a union head and employee at City College of San Francisco called the Jewish professor Abigail Bornstein a “colonizer” and referred to her as “Dumb-stine” during the public comment portion of a meeting of the community college’s board of trustees, the former engaged in antisemitic harassment, the college has decided.
Some seven hours into the board’s May 29, 2025 meeting, which ran eight hours, Bornstein said that the board’s multiyear budget assumptions were “offensive.”
The instructor in the school’s department of computer networking and information technology said that the budget is based on decreasing the number of full-time faculty from 380 to 300 and increasing part-time faculty from 600 to more than 800. Bornstein, who has an M.B.A., also said that the school lacks “competitive wages” for faculty.
The public school can’t keep treating full-time faculty in such an “offensive, disrespectful” way, she said.
When the board moved on to a consent item that related to the Service Employees International Union Local 1021, Bornstein said that she thought employees should have competitive wages, with everyone in a 10-15% range, but that it shouldn’t operate with a “they got this, so we should get that” approach.
Maria Salazar-Colon, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 1021 chapter at the school and a staffer in the public school’s new student counseling department, spoke a few minutes later.
“I’m gonna tell you guys something. Well actually for that big mouth that is always in there. I really wish that that colonizer, Abigail Dumb-stine, would shut her damn mouth and not speak on SEIU items,” she said. “We don’t need her permission when it comes to our negotiations, but as usual, she doesn’t have a clue and is dumber than a bag of rocks and has no place whatsoever in our damn business.”
“She continues to have a fixation on some of her bulls*** when it comes to SEIU,” Salazar-Colon said. “Maybe she should go do math, or maybe shut the f*** up. She needs to go focus on faculty. I’m sick of her s***. Shut the f*** up.”
“President,” someone cut in. “We need to make sure that we are mindful of the comments.”
“I’m going to make whatever comments I want,” Salazar-Colon said, “because I’m tired of it.” She added, “Don’t tell me how to speak. Goodbye.”
Bornstein told JNS that she felt like she was “receiving verbal punches to the gut.”
“I was watching the clock waiting for the time to run out and for the attack to be over,” she told JNS.
StandWithUs and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law told JNS that the college found, after enlisting an independent investigator, that Salazar-Colon’s remarks were harassment and discrimination and that the public school intends to take disciplinary action.
Deedee Bitran, senior counsel and director of the pro bono network within the StandWithUs legal department, told JNS that the school came to “a big landmark decision.” (JNS sought comment from the school and Salazar-Colon.)
“It shows that you cannot target Jewish professors and hide behind, ‘This is union activity’ or ‘this is free speech,’” Bitran told JNS.
The Jewish professor is “truly a role model for other Jewish employees navigating these challenges, despite fearing for her safety,” Bitran said.
“Her bravery is what is needed for Jewish employees to see that when you stand up for your civil rights that the law will fall into place and you can use these legal tools to make sure that you hold bad actors accountable under the law,” she said.
Bitran, whose works on cases about Jew-hatred in the workplace, told JNS that Jew-hatred “has permeated every industry.” The finding will hopefully inspire Jews and Israelis to come forward and stand up for their workplace rights, she said.
“This is huge, because it gives hope to Jews nationwide,” she said.
After the board meeting, Salazar-Colon sent Bornstein what the Brandeis Center and StandWithUs called a “hostile” email, again calling the Jewish professor a “colonizer.”
Salazar-Colon wrote in the email to Bornstein, “I challenge you to say it directly to our faces,” Deena Margolies, staff litigation attorney for the Brandeis Center, told JNS. She added in all capital letters, with exclamation points, that “you lack the power to stop or control SEIU, and you never will. Accept that, colonizer,” Margolies said.
Bornstein became afraid for her safety and stopped coming to campus and reported the incident to the school and police, according to the Brandeis Center and StandWithUs, which represented her.
“The investigator specifically credited evidence showing that terms such as ‘colonizer,’ as used in this context, functioned as an attack on Bornstein’s Jewish identity and national origin,” the two groups stated.
Bornstein told JNS that Salazar-Colon’s email was “even more threatening” and that she felt that she had to contact campus police.
“Ms. Salazar-Colon appeared to be directing others to take action,” Bornstein said. “Given that the board of trustees did not cut off the initial verbal attack, I don’t feel safe on campus.”
The investigator also found Salazar-Colon’s “claim that she was unaware of Bornstein’s Jewish identity was not credible,” the Brandeis Center and StandWithUs said. “The investigation also found that the follow-up email sent by the aggressor could reasonably be interpreted as threatening and intimidating.”
The school also rejected a counter-complaint that Salazar-Colon filed in response to Bornstein, which stated that the Jewish professor filed the complaint in “retaliation for union activity,” according to Bitran.
“This is not union activity. It has nothing to do with the union if you’re harassing a Jewish professor based on her Jewish identity and national origin,” she told JNS. “The investigator rightfully found that this was not protected union activity.”
According to the Brandeis Center and StandWithUs, Salazar-Colon filed an appeal against the school’s decision on Feb. 5. Margolies told JNS that under state law, “once an appeal is submitted, the governing board has 45 days to take action.”
“If the board does not act within that 45-day period, the administrative determination is automatically deemed approved by operation of law on the 46th day and becomes the final district decision,” Margolies said. “The appeal was submitted on Feb. 5, and the board did not take action within the required 45-day period.”
That means that the board approved the findings, she said.
Bornstein told JNS that she is “grateful to my school for doing the right thing by opening up an independent, third-party investigation and finding in my favor.”
“I do, however, feel this is just the first step,” she said. “I’d like to see enforcement of existing policies and updates to existing policies and additional policies put in place, as well as training for employees, board members and student leaders on the type of antisemitism that I experienced.”
She wants others to know that they should be vocal about decrying Jew-hatred “although it is hard and sometimes scary or frightening to speak up and the process can be emotionally difficult.”
“Ask that your school open up an independent, third-party investigation. The evidence speaks for itself,” Bornstein said. “You just need to find the wherewithal to bring it forward.”
