Queens College is facing legal action from a former adjunct accounting professor who alleges the institution declined to reappoint her and five other Jewish colleagues last May as part of an effort to "clean house of its Jewish staff", The New York Post reported.
Helen Schwalb, 66, claims in court papers filed in Brooklyn Federal Court that the City University of New York school retained "younger, non-Jewish educators with lower performance ratings."
Schwalb, who taught at Queens College since 2012 and says she received high performance ratings, stated, "The only remaining Jews in the [accounting] department are those with tenure who are in their 70s and 80s and will likely retire soon."
She contends that despite the school citing low enrollment and budget issues, the two classes she was scheduled to teach were fully enrolled and subsequently assigned to less qualified instructors.
The lawsuit also asserts that Queens College "repeatedly" failed to stop a "barrage of antisemitic hate speech and violence that emerged on campus since the October 7, 2023 massacre of Israelis by Hamas."
While Queens College declined to comment on the pending litigation, it informed The Post that enrollment in its accounting department has decreased by 39% between 2020 and 2024, including an 18% drop between 2022 and 2023. Schwalb is seeking unspecified damages.