
A Jewish professor at Columbia University in New York has resigned due to what he describes as "systematic" anti-Israel bias on campus, Times of Israel reported on Monday.
Prof. Avi Friedman, an adjunct professor at Columbia's business school, sent a letter last week to the university's leadership announcing his resignation, he confirmed to the website. The letter was addressed to Columbia President Dr. Katrina Armstrong; Prof. Costis Maglaras, the dean of the business school; and Prof. Tano Santos, the director of the Heilbrunn Center, part of the business school.
Friedman stated in his letter that he was resigning due to the campus climate since Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
"The university's response to the Hamas attack and campus protests have made it impossible for my conscience to justify remaining at Columbia," he wrote.
"Initially, I found myself making excuses: that these were misguided students, that they were merely exercising free speech. But these rationalizations can no longer mask what has become inexcusable and systematic," added Prof. Friedman.
He condemned the university for allowing Joseph Massad, a professor who celebrated the Hamas attack on Israel, to teach a course on Israel, calling the appointment "a complete abandonment of academic integrity and unbiased scholarship."
Friedman denounced a Columbia statement from December, which said Massad's comments about the Hamas attack "created pain for many in our community and contributed to the deep controversy on our campus."
Friedman called the statement "inadequate and disingenuous" and added, "His comments were not mere slip-ups. They represent his consistent worldview, one he continues to promote."
Friedman added that Columbia's role as an "epicenter of the intifada movement" in the US was not an accident, but resulted from "years of institutional cultivation."
"Columbia's values are fundamentally incompatible with my own. I can no longer maintain my association with this institution," Friedman said.
Columbia has come under increased scrutiny over the rise in antisemitism on campus since the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023.
Pro-Palestinian Arab demonstrators at Columbia set up dozens of tents in April of last year, demanding that the university divest from its Israeli assets. The university administration called in police to dismantle the encampments.
On April 30, at the request of university leaders, hundreds of officers with the New York Police Department stormed onto campus, gaining access to the building through a second-story window and making dozens of arrests of the pro-Palestinian Arab demonstrators who had taken over Hamilton Hall.
Before the anti-Israel encampment on campus, the Chabad rabbi of Columbia University and a group of Jewish students were forced to leave the university campus for their own safety during a pro-Hamas demonstration.
In August, three Columbia University deans resigned from the school, after it was discovered that they had exchanged “very troubling” texts that “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes”.
Later that month, Columbia University President Dr. Minouche Shafik announced her resignation, following months of criticism for her handling of campus antisemitism.
In September, on the first day of classes, dozens of masked anti-Israel protesters gathered at the entrance to Columbia and at Barnard College.
Last month, protesters disrupted a class on Israeli history at Columbia, handing out anti-Israel flyers. Columbia University suspended a student involved in the incident.