Prof. Jennifer Mnookin, president of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will be appointed as president of Columbia University in New York and will assume the position after a turbulent period on campus surrounding the Gaza war. Mnookin, who is Jewish and has a legal background from Harvard, Yale and MIT universities, previously served as dean of the law school at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). After October 7, she issued official statements condemning the massacre in Israel while expressing concern for the continued bloodshed in Gaza and warning against rising antisemitism and Islamophobia. Her appointment comes after the resignation of two previous presidents over their handling of pro-Palestinian protests on campus and friction with the institution’s leadership and the concerned Jewish community.
