Michael Gross
WSJ, July 11, 2024
“Passive and morally confused leaders have tacitly encouraged the threats of violence against Jewish students. By failing to oppose antisemitism from the outset, they’ve fostered the creation of a de facto no-go zone for Jews.”
Will the antisemitism at Columbia University ever end? That was the question after anti-Israel protesters set up yet another shanty encampment on campus in June. As a Jewish nursing student who’s seen the hate every day since Oct. 7, I believe the only way to get meaningful change is to sue my school. Columbia’s leaders won’t do enough to stop antisemitism, so a federal court must force a change.
I went public with my lawsuit on June 17, when my lawyers at Kasowitz Benson Torres filed an amended complaint in Manhattan’s federal court. They did so on behalf of 47 Columbia and Barnard students and recent graduates. When the suit was initially filed in February, I was an anonymous member of StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice.
In the intervening months, the situation on campus has become immeasurably worse. I want to show that real people are suffering from the hatred that has overrun Columbia University since Hamas’s rampage in Israel.
After I attended a vigil last fall for the victims, many fellow students stopped talking to me. I was routinely called a murderer, and even a Nazi, as I walked to class. I received an anonymous death threat on social media. I usually remained in my off-campus apartment, skipping class because I would have had to walk past—or through—groups of students advocating violence against Jews. I canceled a job interview on campus because I feared for my safety. For much of the fall semester, I stayed away from New York City and took classes virtually.
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