'Your Jewish students cannot be sacrificed': Jewish leaders, students address universities

Students and leaders from major Jewish organizations held a news conference on Friday afternoon at the Columbia/Barnard Hillel Kraft Center for Jewish life demanding administrators uphold university code of conduct and enforce its rules as protests escalate on campuses across the country. 

Columbia/Barnard Hillel Lavine Family Executive Director Brian Cohen said the university needs to send a clear message to the protestors: gather within the university rules around student protests or face serious, legitimate consequences, namely suspension and expulsion. 

"It's not my standard practice to be public about what is happening on campus," Cohen said. "But I tried working with the University behind the scenes. They consistently failed to address the crisis on campus."

While Cohen said protestors have the right to say things he and others strongly disagree with and even find deplorable, protections are supposed to be able to restrict where and when protest activity can take place. 

University rules dictate the university must ensure that students can "continue their academic pursuits without fear for their personal security or other serious intrusions on their ability to teach and study," he said. 

Cohen said some faculty are suggesting that students are fabricating allegations of antisemitism, and other professors are teaching their classes filled with students from diverse political and personal backgrounds from within the encampment. Cohen also said some professors are ending classes early and walking out to attend protests. 

Cohen said he's reached out to the administration requesting professors teach their classes in the classroom, to which he's gotten no response. 

Hillel leadership comments on campus antisemitism

Hillel International CEO Adam Lehman became emotional, pounding on the podium as he said students deserve better and deserve an environment that is free from harassment, intimidation and physical assault.

"Every university leader who may be watching or may see a recording of this: do your job. You are there to actually prevent the anarchy and chaos which we are seeing on far too many campuses," Lehman said. "Your opportunity is simply to do what is right. Enforce your policies."

Lehman said we have to be able to depend on institutions of higher education to take back control of their campuses from cultish behavior, which in many cases is embracing a culture of death rather than a culture of life. 

American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch said making campus spaces safe for Jewish students doesn't happen when the last encampment is shut down. He said it's an ongoing, long-term process and the challenges will not go away when the semester ends. 

Put a plan in place and stick to it, Deutch said. Deutch said administrators cannot think that moving classes online is an acceptable solution. 

"If the university cannot be a place of learning, then what is the point? Universities across America must take action, and we are not asking asking for radical change," Deutch said. "It's really very simple. Number one, ensure the safety of your Jewish students. Your Jewish students cannot be sacrificed."

Noa Fay, a senior at Barnard College and Columbia School for International and Public Affairs, said she initially spent the days after October 7 buried in her studies. Now, she said she's fully engaged. 

"The Jewish experience at Columbia University has become so insufferable, but it has clarified to remain quiet is to seal my own fate," Fay said. "These students may waive the Palestinian flag, but this is not about Palestine. This is about the war in the Gaza Strip. This has always been a protest against the existence of a Jewish state of Israel."