NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — The Columbia Jewish Alumni Association wrote a letter to President Nemat (Minouche) Shafik demanding that she “take all possible steps to protect student safety” amid ongoing pro-Palestinian protests, citing concern for Jewish student safety.
“At present, new, unauthorized protests are disrupting classes and creating an irrefutably unsafe environment for Jewish students,” the letter, dated Friday, read.
The letter came one day after the NYPD, at the request of Columbia officials, removed a pro-Palestinian protest encampment from the Manhattan campus and arrested over 100 demonstrators. The protestors were calling for the school to divest from companies profiting from business with Israel.
The CJAA claims that suspended students from the protest encampment and some faculty are actively engaging in continued demonstrations, “openly fomenting unrest” and drawing protestors from outside the school to participate.
“It is clear to us that Columbia is now under mob rule,” the CJAA wrote. “We are, in short, afraid that violence against Jewish students is imminent.”
A group of Jewish students at Columbia have requested permission to take classes virtually “until the situation has entirely de-escalated,” the New York Daily News reported, and the CJAA wrote that this is unsurprising when considering the campus climate.
The letter calls on Shafik—who earlier this week defended to Congress her handling of campus tension and antisemitism since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war—to enforce the school’s code of conduct and close Columbia’s gates.
“The actions of a few should not be allowed to sully the reputation of this esteemed institution nor jeopardize the future of the students it serves,” the CJAA wrote.