If you’re a Jewish student thinking of attending Columbia University in New York City, then you may want to think again. According to the California-based David Horowitz Freedom Center, Columbia University tops their lists of universities with the most anti-Semitic activity in the United States.
The list is part of a project entitled “Jew Hatred on Campus,” an initiative by the Center to bring attention to the growing momentum of anti-Semitic incidents taking place in schools around the country, and to bring attention to campus groups which are often using school property, and school money, to support their activities.
The Center aims for the list to bring negative attention down on university groups which are partaking in anti-Semitic activity and, hopefully, lead to the removal of school privileges and funding given that activities which promote hate and discrimination go against the schools’ codes of conduct.
According to the center’s founder, David Horowitz, as reported by the Algemeiner, “These activities against Jewish and pro-Israel students would not be tolerated by university administrators if they were committed against students from any other ethnic group. But because Jews are the target, they have been largely ignored. It is an obligation of university administrators to recognize and condemn acts of antisemitism by campus hate groups and to withdraw campus privileges and university support from them.”
Columbia made the top of this year’s list due to both student activity, and staffing choices by the school. The Center explained that it’s home to some of the, “most well-known anti-Semitic professors in the nation such as Rashid Khalidi and Joseph Massad, who has been accused of harassing Jewish students on multiple occasions. In addition, it is home to a highly active SJP [Students for Justice in Palestine] chapter that has recently brought BDS founder Omar Barghouti and disgraced anti-Semitic professor Steven Salaita to campus.” Columbia was also home in 2014 to Israeli Apartheid Week, which featured students protesting Israel with signs reading, “Call to Action: Stand With Gaza.”
On this year’s list, which is updated at the beginning of each year, other universities which made the cut include Cornell, George Mason University, Loyola University Chicago, Portland State, San Diego State, San Francisco State, Temple University,University of California Los Angeles (although UC Davis made headlines when a student claimed Sharia and Hamas Law was in effect at the school), and Vassar College.
Coincidentally, the list was published just a day after a study revealed that over half of Jewish university students have reported anti-Semitism on campus.