As Columbia University nears a deal with the Trump administration to restore “most” of the $400 million in grants and contracts the federal government froze in March, acting president Claire Shipman said on Tuesday that the school is adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred.
“Columbia is committed to taking all possible steps to combat antisemitism and the university remains dedicated to ensuring that complaints of discrimination and harassment of all types, including complaints based on Jewish and Israeli identity, are treated in the same manner,” she stated. “Formally adding the consideration of the IHRA definition into our existing anti-discrimination policies strengthens our approach to combating antisemitism.”
Shipman also said that as part of the university’s “zero tolerance” policy for “discrimination and harassment based on protected traits, including Jewish and Israeli identity,” the school won’t meet with or recognize “the group that calls itself ‘Columbia University Apartheid Divest,’ its representatives, or any of its affiliated organizations.”
The Ivy League school had announced in March that it would adopt a definition of antisemitism, specifying on Tuesday that the definition would be the IHRA one. It also said that it will appoint Title VI and Title VII coordinators to review and respond to discrimination complaints.
Columbia also said that it is working with the progressive group Project Shema, the Anti-Defamation League, the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism and Kalaniyot, and is “exploring a cooperation with Yad Vashem.” It is also working with Interfaith America, the Constructive Dialogue Institute and StoryCorps, it said, “to build programs that will go beyond traditional trainings, and the focus on antisemitism, to build bridges more broadly, to create constructive dialogue and to deepen our understanding of each other.”
“Columbia is committed to taking all possible steps to combat antisemitism and the university remains dedicated to ensuring that complaints of discrimination and harassment of all types, including complaints based on Jewish and Israeli identity, are treated in the same manner,” Shipman stated. “Formally adding the consideration of the IHRA definition into our existing anti-discrimination policies strengthens our approach to combating antisemitism.”
A ‘symbolic gesture’
Ari Shrage, co-founder of the Columbia Jewish Alumni Association, told JNS that the university’s latest announcement did little to change the reality facing Jewish students.
“Unfortunately, this is more talk from the university and no real actions to address antisemitism on campus,” he said. “It is a superficial attempt to respond to the backlash from the Trump administration backing down from demanding real changes at the school.”
Elisha Baker, a rising senior at Columbia, told JNS that the university’s most recent announcement is a “symbolic gesture.”
“Columbia needs deep institutional reform to correct dysfunctional rule-making processes, reform the bloated and radical university senate, increase viewpoint diversity, and ultimately, fix our campus culture, which has rewarded antisemitism, anti-Westernism and disruption,” he told JNS.
