Union head calling Jewish professor ‘colonizer’ was Jew-hatred, San Francisco community college finds – JNS.org

(
Mar. 31, 2026
/ JNS
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When a union head and employee at City College of San Francisco called the Jewish professor Abigail Bornstein a “colonizer,” also referring to her as “Dumb-stine,” during the public comment portion in a meeting of the community college’s board of trustees, she engaged in antisemitic harassment, the college has decided.

Some seven hours into the board’s meeting on May 29, 2025, which ran for eight hours, Bornstein said that the board’s multiyear budget assumptions were “offensive.”

The instructor in the school’s department of computer networking and information technology said that the budget is based on decreasing the number of full-time faculty from 380 to 300 and increasing part-time faculty from 600 to more than 800. Bornstein, who has an MBA, also said that the school lacks “competitive wages” for faculty.

The public school can’t keep treating full-time faculty in such an “offensive, disrespectful” way, she said.

When the board moved on to a consent item that related to the Service Employees International Union Local 1021, Bornstein said that she thought employees should have competitive wages, with everyone in a 10% to 15% range, but that it shouldn’t operate with a “they got this, so we should get that” approach.

Maria Salazar-Colon, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 1021 chapter at the school and a staffer in the public school’s new student counseling department, spoke a few minutes later.

“I’m gonna tell you guys something. Well, actually, for that big mouth that is always in there. I really wish that that colonizer, Abigail Dumb-stine, would shut her damn mouth and not speak on SEIU items,” she said. “We don’t need her permission when it comes to our negotiations, but as usual, she doesn’t have a clue and is dumber than a bag of rocks and has no place whatsoever in our damn business.”

“She continues to have a fixation on some of her bulls**t when it comes to SEIU,” Salazar-Colon said. “Maybe she should go do math, or maybe shut the f**k up. She needs to go focus on faculty. I’m sick of her s**t. Shut the f**k up.”

“President,” someone cut in. “We need to make sure that we are mindful of the comments.”

“I’m going to make whatever comments I want,” Salazar-Colon said, “because I’m tired of it.”

Bornstein told JNS that she felt like she was “receiving verbal punches to the gut.”

“I was watching the clock, waiting for the time to run out and for the attack to be over,” she told JNS.

‘I don’t feel safe on campus’

StandWithUs and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law told JNS that the college found, after enlisting an independent investigator, that Salazar-Colon’s remarks were harassment and discrimination and that the public school intends to take disciplinary action.

Deedee Bitran, senior counsel and director of the pro bono network within the StandWithUs legal department, told JNS that the school came to “a big landmark decision.” (JNS sought comment from the school and Salazar-Colon.)

“It shows that you cannot target Jewish professors and hide behind, ‘This is union activity’ or ‘this is free speech,’” Bitran told JNS.

The Jewish professor is “truly a role model for other Jewish employees navigating these challenges, despite fearing for her safety,” she added.

She stated that “her bravery is what is needed for Jewish employees to see that when you stand up for your civil rights, that the law will fall into place and you can use these legal tools to make sure that you hold bad actors accountable under the law.”

Bitran, whose works on cases about Jew-hatred in the workplace, told JNS that Jew-hatred “has permeated every industry.” The finding will hopefully inspire Jews and Israelis to come forward and stand up for their workplace rights, she said, adding, “this is huge, because it gives hope to Jews nationwide.”

After the board meeting, Salazar-Colon sent Bornstein what the Brandeis Center and StandWithUs called a “hostile” email, again calling the Jewish professor a “colonizer.”

Salazar-Colon wrote in the email to Bornstein, “I challenge you to say it directly to our faces,” Deena Margolies, staff litigation attorney for the Brandeis Center, told JNS. She added in all capital letters, with exclamation points, that “you lack the power to stop or control SEIU, and you never will. Accept that, colonizer,” Margolies said.

Bornstein became afraid for her safety; she stopped coming to campus and reported the incident to the school and police, according to the Brandeis Center and StandWithUs, which represented her.

“The investigator specifically credited evidence showing that terms such as ‘colonizer,’ as used in this context, functioned as an attack on Bornstein’s Jewish identity and national origin,” the two groups stated.

Bornstein told JNS that Salazar-Colon’s email was “even more threatening” and that she felt that she had to contact campus police.

“Ms. Salazar-Colon appeared to be directing others to take action,” Bornstein said. “Given that the board of trustees did not cut off the initial verbal attack, I don’t feel safe on campus.”

The investigator also found Salazar-Colon’s “claim that she was unaware of Bornstein’s Jewish identity was not credible,” according to the Brandeis Center and StandWithUs. “The investigation also found that the follow-up email sent by the aggressor could reasonably be interpreted as threatening and intimidating.”

‘Spreading false information’
Salazar-Colon told JNS that “the investigator did not sufficiently account for my explanations or the possibility that the characterization of my statements was influenced by bias or preconceived notions.”

“The interpretation of my words as threatening or antisemitic is highly subjective and not supported by an objective review of my statements or intent,” she said. “In fact, my intent was to express strong disagreement with Ms. Bornstein’s positions, not to threaten or engage in any antisemitic conduct. It has nothing to do with her Jewish heritage, which I had no prior knowledge of.”

When JNS asked Salazar-Colon why she referred to Bornstein as “Dumb-stine,” she said that “it wasn’t because of her as an individual or because she has a Jewish name, which, by the way, I didn’t even know was connected to Jewish heritage. I don’t make assumptions based on someone’s name.”

She said, “I made the remarks because she has persistently gone before the board of trustees and engaged in a tirade of false statements that are not factual. She has been repeatedly told for years to stop attacking us by spreading false information. It is unacceptable for her to continue unjustly spreading lies about the one employee group that comprises the majority of working-class workers of color and the only group that mirrors the majority of our student population.”

And she acknowledged that “in hindsight, given how my remarks have been inaccurately interpreted, I would have phrased them differently.”

Still, Salazar-Colon said, “the district must acknowledge and address the institutional racism that persists in its meetings, hiring practices (both past and present) and decision-making processes. This includes actively combating bias based on skin tone and ensuring equitable treatment for all individuals.”

‘This is just the first step’

The school rejected a counter-complaint that Salazar-Colon filed in response to Bornstein, which stated that the Jewish professor filed the complaint in “retaliation for union activity,” according to Bitran.

“This is not union activity. It has nothing to do with the union if you’re harassing a Jewish professor based on her Jewish identity and national origin,” she told JNS. “The investigator rightfully found that this was not protected union activity.”

According to the Brandeis Center and StandWithUs, Salazar-Colon filed an appeal against the school’s decision on Feb. 5. Margolies told JNS that under state law, “once an appeal is submitted, the governing board has 45 days to take action.”

“If the board does not act within that 45-day period, the administrative determination is automatically deemed approved by operation of law on the 46th day and becomes the final district decision,” Margolies said. “The appeal was submitted on Feb. 5, and the board did not take action within the required 45-day period.”

That means that the board approved the findings, she said.

Bornstein told JNS that she is “grateful to my school for doing the right thing by opening up an independent, third-party investigation and finding in my favor.”

“I do, however, feel this is just the first step,” she said. “I’d like to see enforcement of existing policies and updates to existing policies and additional policies put in place, as well as training for employees, board members and student leaders on the type of antisemitism that I experienced.”

She wants others to know that they should be vocal about decrying Jew-hatred, “although it is hard and sometimes scary or frightening to speak up, and the process can be emotionally difficult.”

“Ask that your school open up an independent, third-party investigation. The evidence speaks for itself,” Bornstein said. “You just need to find the wherewithal to bring it forward.”