AIM President Adam Guillette discusses Columbia’s ‘reckoning’
April 15, 2025
Columbia University’s antisemitism reckoning is long overdue
We are finally witnessing major victories in the fight against antisemitism and anti-Americanism at our nation’s universities. First, the White House announced over the weekend that it will cut $400 million in taxpayer funding for Columbia University, easily the most notorious hotbed of racist, anti-Western activity in America. Then, federal immigration agents arrested a graduate student who played a leading role in inciting the wave of violent pro-Hamas actions on Columbia’s campus. Columbia University has made a name for itself as America’s most antisemitic university, and the chickens are coming to roost.
After the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, antisemitic activity skyrocketed across the United States. Harvard University made headlines when several radical student groups wrote and released a letter blaming Israel for the attack, acting as a catalyst for the violent eruption of antisemitism at universities nationwide. Within weeks, Columbia students signed a proclamation blaming America and Israel for the Hamas terrorist attack. Columbia students, faculty and outside protesters vandalized the campus, spewed hateful rhetoric, harassed Jewish students and led aggressive demonstrations.
In May, during a particularly violent riot at Columbia, several maintenance workers were held hostage for nearly 20 hours as protesters occupied a building on campus. The maintenance workers said they felt the school had abandoned them and that more should have been done to protect them. Unfortunately, this behavior was not unique to the student body. Dozens of Columbia faculty members were complicit in the antisemitic activity by signing letters countering the university’s antisemitism task force and participating in campus protests. Columbia University betrayed its duty to protect students, create an environment conducive to learning and safeguard its campus from violence.