{"id":191497,"date":"2026-04-09T23:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T23:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191497\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T23:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T23:09:09","slug":"how-antisemitic-professors-have-poisoned-columbia-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191497\/","title":{"rendered":"How antisemitic professors have ‘poisoned’ Columbia University"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the 2023-2024 House Education committee\u2019s hearings on campus antisemitism<\/a> in the wake of Hamas attacks on Israel, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) pressed the presidents of Columbia<\/a>, Harvard<\/a>, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania<\/a>: Did calling for the genocide of Jews violate their schools\u2019 rules on bullying and harassment? They were largely unable to answer with real clarity. Within months, three of the four presidents had resigned. In her new book, \u201cPoisoned Ivies<\/a>,\u201d Stefanik explores how elite universities ended up in a moral rot that\u2019s\u00a0fueled by groupthink, abandonment of viewpoint diversity <\/a>and a system of far-left indoctrination<\/a>. In this excerpt, she shines a light on a group of professors \u2014\u00a0including Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s father \u2014 spreading anti-Jewish bias at Columbia University<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Immediately following Hamas\u2019s terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023<\/a>, American Jewish and Israeli students at Columbia faced vile slurs and constant threats to their physical safety. Less than one week after October 7th, a former Columbia undergraduate assaulted an Israeli student with a stick<\/a> while tearing down posters of the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. According to a report, \u201cthe violent assailant shouted \u2018F\u2013k you. F\u2013k all you prick crackers.\u2019\u201d The perpetrator was eventually prosecuted for charges including second-degree and third-degree assault.<\/p>\n

This was hardly the only incident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Starting in December 2023, the House Education committee, including Rep. Elise Stefanik, held hearings on campus antisemitism in the wake of Hamas attacks on Israel, questioning the presidents of Columbia, Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania and other schools. In April 2024, anti-Israel student protesters set up an encampment on the grounds of Columbia (above). James Keivom<\/p>\n

The problem of anti-Jewish bias, and even abuse of Jewish and pro-Israel students, is long-standing at Columbia. Antisemitism has found homes in whole departments and fields of study, to the extent that students dare not enter, for example, the notorious Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies<\/a> (MESAAS) if they hold pro-Israel opinions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Take, for example, Joseph Massad<\/a>, professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history in the Middle Eastern Studies Department. He began teaching at Columbia in 1999 and was granted tenure in 2009.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Massad\u2019s history of antisemitism is well documented and apparent in his work. In the early 2000s, Massad allegedly asked a student who had served in the Israeli Defense Forces, \u201cHow many Palestinians did you kill?\u201d He has called IDF soldiers \u201cbaby-killing Zionist Jewish volunteers for Israeli Jewish supremacy\u201d and labeled Zionism a \u201cgenocidal cult.\u201d When Columbia was asked by the media about these heinous statements by a professor, instead of condemning the statements, they cowardly refused to comment.<\/p>\n

In 2005, a series of student complaints forced Columbia\u2019s then president Lee Bollinger to establish a five-person committee to investigate Massad. The members of the committee were two professors who had signed an anti-Israel BDS petition, a professor who had publicly blamed Israel for worldwide antisemitism, Massad\u2019s dissertation advisor, and a university administrator who had previously been accused of ignoring student complaints of antisemitism on campus. \u201cThe man who handpicked the committee, Nick Dirks,\u201d The Post added, \u201cis married to a professor who co-teaches a class with Massad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Massad was not disciplined.<\/p>\n

The problem of anti-Jewish bias, and even abuse of Jewish and pro-Israel students, is long-standing at Columbia, Elise Stefanik writes in her new book, \u201cPoisoned Ivies.\u201d AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

On Oct. 8, 2023, Joseph Massad, professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history in the Middle Eastern Studies Department at Columbia University, wrote an op-ed celebrating Hamas\u2019s \u201cresistance.\u201d Columbia University<\/p>\n

So it could hardly come as a shock that, on October 8, 2023, just 24 hours after Hamas launched its terrorist attack on Israel, Massad published an online op-ed<\/a> at the website The Electronic Intifada celebrating Hamas\u2019s \u201cresistance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He praised the attacks in paragraph after paragraph. At no point does Massad mention any of the particular acts of violence and terror committed by Hamas \u2014 for example, slaughtering whole families in their homes or butchering elderly peace activists. All of that is hidden under the word \u201cresistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few weeks later, he joined 170 other Columbia faculty in signing an open letter<\/a> \u201cin Defense of Robust Debate About the History and Meaning of the War in Israel\/Gaza.\u201d The bulk of the letter is spent defending a student-written statement that had appeared earlier in the month. At no point in this letter are Hamas\u2019s crimes mentioned or acknowledged.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mahmood Mamdani\u2019s \u201canti- American, anti- capitalist, and anti-Israel fanaticism have animated his entire career and shaped his son\u2019s,\u201d Stefanik writes of the father of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, seen here with his parents (mother Mira Nair, center). Getty Images<\/p>\n

According to the letter, Hamas\u2019s \u201carmed resistance\u201d is \u201canticipated\u201d by \u201cinternational humanitarian law\u201d \u2014 a way of saying that Hamas\u2019s acts are implicitly righteous. Whether the \u201cprohibition against the intentional targeting of civilians\u201d applies to Hamas or only to Israel is, notably, left ambiguous.<\/p>\n

This is just one egregious example of Columbia professors who fully embrace and foment antisemitism on campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hamid Dabashi<\/a>, Columbia\u2019s Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, has a decades-long record of antisemitism in his classroom. In 2004, Dabashi wrote that Israelis have \u201ca vulgarity of character that is bone-deep and structural to the skeletal vertebrae of its culture.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A decade later, he wrote, \u201cfrom now on, every time any Israeli, every time any Jew, anywhere in the world, utters the word \u2018Auschwitz,\u2019 or the word \u2018Holocaust,\u2019 the world will hear \u2018Gaza.\u2019\u201d In 2018, he wrote, \u201cEvery dirty treacherous ugly and pernicious act happening in the world just wait for a few days and the ugly name of \u2018Israel\u2019 will pup [sic] up as a key actor in the atrocities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamid Dabashi, Columbia\u2019s Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, has a decades-long record of antisemitism in his classroom, Stefanik writes. Matteo Prandoni\/BFA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one other professor whose name might sound familiar. Mahmood Mamdani<\/a> is the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia. He is also the father of New York City\u2019s pro-Hamas, defund-the-police, Socialist, I believe jihadist, new mayor Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n

The elder Mamdani\u2019s bona fides are, naturally, impeccable: anti- American, anti- capitalist, and anti-Israel fanaticism have animated his entire career and shaped his son\u2019s.<\/p>\n

For example, in \u201cGood Muslim, Bad Muslim,\u201d published in 2004, Mamdani asserted that \u201cwe need to recognize the suicide bomber, first and foremost, as a category of soldier.\u201d Mamdani rejected the idea that suicide bombing is barbaric. It\u2019s probably not a coincidence that the book appeared at precisely the time that Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, PFLP, and other terrorist groups were embracing suicide bombing as the central tactic of the Second Intifada, during which time they killed more than one thousand Israelis.<\/p>\n

In \u201cNeither Settler Nor Native,\u201d published in 2020, Mamdani claimed that in Israel \u201cthe expunging of non-Jews has taken the form of ethnic cleansing, dispossession, segregation, fragmentation, apartheid, and denial of identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anti-Israel student protesters broke into a building on the Columbia campus and occupied it on April 30, 2024. Getty Images<\/p>\n

At an event in 2022, taking a moment away from attacking Israel to go the next step and attack America, he explained: \u201cAmerica is the genesis of what we call \u2018settler colonialism.\u2019 The American model was exported all around the world.\u201d He claimed that Hitler modeled the Holocaust on American precedents, specifically Abraham Lincoln\u2019s Native American policies.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s far from the worst of it.<\/p>\n

Mahmood Mamdani is a member of the Advisory Policy Council of the Gaza Tribunal<\/a>, the goal of which \u201cis to awaken civil society to its responsibility and opportunity to stop Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza.\u201d Other members of the council include the virulently antisemitic ex\u2013UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and Ramy Abdu, a human rights lawyer with close ties to Hamas. The Gaza Tribunal hosted a conference in Istanbul in late October 2025. Among its featured speakers were several with present or past ties to designated terrorist organizations.<\/p>\n

When it comes to Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s radicalism \u2014 for example, when he refuses to condemn Hamas<\/a> or when he peddles antisemitic conspiracy theories <\/a>such as: \u201cWhen the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it\u2019s been laced by the IDF\u201d \u2014 the apple does not fall far from the tree. In fact, Zohran Mamdani\u2019s dangerous ideology was developed in a petri dish of antisemitic, anti-American indoctrination from his parents, whom he himself has described as having shaped his political worldview.<\/p>\n

Mahmood Mamdani is a member of the Advisory Policy Council of the Gaza Tribunal, the goal of which \u201cis to awaken civil society to its responsibility and opportunity to stop Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza.\u201d Getty Images<\/p>\n

For years, Columbia has welcomed professors like those above, treating them as superlative members of Columbia\u2019s academic community. Pro-Israel professors have not received the same welcome. Consider what happened to former Columbia Business School Professor Shai Davidai<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the evening of October 18, 2023, Professor Davidai, who grew up in Israel, gave an impassioned speech at an anti-terror vigil on Columbia\u2019s campus. He posted the speech to YouTube<\/a> titled \u201cAn Open Letter to Every Parent in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m speaking to you as a dad,\u201d Davidai said: \u201cI want you to know we cannot protect your children from pro-terror student organizations, because the president of Columbia University will not speak out against pro-terror student organizations, because the president of Harvard University, because the president of Stanford, because the president of Berkeley will not speak out against pro-terror student organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the course of his ten-minute oration, he accused then Columbia President Minouche Shafik of being a \u201ccoward\u201d and said that he feared for his safety on campus, given the indisputable evidence of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In contrast to the anti-Israel professors Stefanik writes about, former Columbia Business School Professor Shai Davidai, who is Jewish, \u201cbecame a target of Columbia\u2019s administration\u201d for his outspokenness. Stefano Giovannini<\/p>\n

Unlike the tenured professors spewing vile antisemitism for decades, Shai Davidai became a target of Columbia\u2019s administration. In December 2023, Columbia University launched an investigation of Davidai<\/a>, alleging harassment based on \u201cnational origin and\/or shared ancestry.\u201d The charges reflected accusations from pro-Palestinian students and faculty that Davidai had \u201cdoxxed\u201d and \u201charassed\u201d them \u2014 charges that Davidai denies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Davidai and his wife identify as liberals. Writing in Tablet in February 2024<\/a>, they articulated their position this way: \u201cAs leftist, liberal Zionists, we have always made a clear distinction between the people of Palestine and the inhumane terror organizations that falsely purport to speak in their name. Our support for a two-state solution has never wavered, and to this day we remain staunchly opposed to Israel\u2019s occupation of the West Bank, refrain from buying products manufactured beyond the 1967 armistice line, and protest any governmental policy that we see as oppressive or unjust.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

They simply think that Israel has the right to exist \u2014 a belief they share with the majority of Americans.<\/p>\n

In October 2024, on the first anniversary of October 7th, antisemitic protesters surrounded and intimidated a group of students holding a university-sanctioned memorial. Pro-Hamas protesters sat on the steps of Columbia\u2019s library holding mock newspapers that read, in a full-page advertisement, \u201cGlory to the Martyrs. Victory to the Resistance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cExhausted by Columbia\u2019s mistreatment, Davidai left the university,\u201d Stefanik writes. He has explained his decision: \u201cColumbia\u2019s failed leadership, morally bankrupt faculty, and indifferent majority have shattered my respect for an institution I once called home.\u201d Matthew McDermott<\/p>\n

When Columbia chief operating officer Cas Holloway happened to cross Columbia\u2019s plaza, Davidai challenged him to explain why pro-Hamas protesters were permitted by the university to harass Jewish mourners and accused Holloway of being \u201cindifferent\u201d to \u201chatred.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few days later, Davidai\u2019s campus access was suspended<\/a>. A university spokesman alleged that he had \u201crepeatedly harassed and intimidated University employees in violation of University policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, exhausted by Columbia\u2019s mistreatment, Davidai left the university. Writing in Tablet in July 2025<\/a>, he explained his decision: \u201cColumbia\u2019s failed leadership, morally bankrupt faculty, and indifferent majority have shattered my respect for an institution I once called home. I no longer trust its leaders to do what\u2019s right, or my colleagues to show them the way. With that respect lost, I have no choice but to leave. Staying would betray everything I stand for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPoisoned Ivies,\u201d by Elise Stefanik, is out April 14.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The pattern is clear. Those who attack Jewish students are treated with kid gloves and allowed to remain in positions of privilege and influence. But those who stand up for the civil rights of Jewish students are bullied\u2014 then accused of being the bullies, suspended, canceled, and driven out.<\/p>\n

And just to remind you: Columbia University\u2019s undergraduate tuition is an eye-watering $70,000 per year\u2014for this antisemitic, anti-American, and vile anti-West hate.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 by Elise Stefanik. From the forthcoming book \u201cPOISONED IVIES: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America\u2019s Elite Universities\u201d by Elise Stefanik to be published by Threshold Editions, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC. Printed by permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the 2023-2024 House Education committee\u2019s hearings on campus antisemitism in the wake of Hamas attacks on Israel,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[3862,128,19817,67,9,24,63,129,131,130,1076,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-191497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-bronx","10":"tag-columbia-university","11":"tag-education","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-the-bronx","16":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","17":"tag-the-bronx-news","18":"tag-world-news","19":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}