{"id":48412,"date":"2025-11-22T08:51:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T08:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/48412\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T08:51:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T08:51:06","slug":"us-doj-probing-ccny-interfaith-event-marred-by-claim-of-openly-antisemitic-rhetoric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/48412\/","title":{"rendered":"US DOJ probing CCNY interfaith event marred by claim of ‘openly antisemitic rhetoric’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation<\/a> into an interfaith event at City College where the director of a Jewish campus organization said another speaker, an imam, berated him with \u201cinflammatory and openly antisemitic rhetoric,\u201d before directing students to walk out.<\/p>\n

The Hillel director Ilya Bratman\u2019s written account of last week\u2019s incident in Harlem, circulated to students and faculty in a newsletter, soon went viral<\/a>, prompting the Justice Department to respond on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is deeply concerning,\u201d Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Justice Department\u2019s civil rights division, wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201c[An] investigation was opened yesterday and is ongoing,\u201d she added on Thursday.<\/p>\n

In his first year back in office, President Trump has overhauled the Justice Department\u2019s civil rights office<\/a>, reassigning attorneys and other long-time bureaucrats from their traditional work to focus on cases against the higher education sector<\/a> and Democrat-led cities. The move has stirred controversy.<\/p>\n

The Daily News has reached out to City College, part of the City University of New York for more information. The Justice Department declined to comment further.<\/p>\n

The Nov. 13 event at City College was billed as an \u201cinterfaith workshop\u201d<\/a> where participants could \u201cdelve into the history & current events of this multi-faith world\u201d and answer questions like \u201chow are we different\u201d and \u201cwhere are our commonalities?\u201d It was one of many interfaith events in recent years at CUNY, including at Baruch<\/a>, Brooklyn and Hostos Community College<\/a>, which provided an alternative to college protests during the Israel-Hamas war<\/a> and an opportunity to foster dialogue and appreciation across the many religious groups on campus.<\/p>\n

The City College program appeared to fall short of those goals.<\/p>\n

In the CUNY Hillel newsletter, Bratman alleged the imam at first refused to speak \u201cin front of Zionists,\u201d before the lecture devolved into what he described as a \u201cconversion-style message\u201d that made him \u201cdeeply uncomfortable,\u201d including an incendiary comment about \u201ccutting off the fingers of the rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Times of Israel, which said it obtained a recording of his 15-minute remarks<\/a>, quoted the Muslim leader as saying: \u201cThe filthy rich \u2026 deserve their tips to be cut off.\u201d The imam has been identified in a number of reports as\u00a0Abdullah Mady<\/a>, a recent City College alum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came here to this event not knowing that I would be sitting next to a Zionist, and this is something I\u2019m not going to accept,\u201d the pro-Israel news outlet quoted from the recording. \u201cMy people are being killed right now in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

The imam then asked Muslim students to \u201cexit this room immediately,\u201d The Times of Israel reported. Bratman estimated 100 students walked out of the event, leaving behind two Jewish and about 20 Christian students escorted out by campus security as the protesters gathered outside.<\/p>\n

The Hillel newsletter identified the Jewish campus organization as the \u201cmost Zionist Hillel in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

In spring 2023, City College was at the center of tensions over Israel\u2019s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, as students and faculty from across the CUNY system descended on the Harlem campus to pitch a pro-Palestinian encampment<\/a>. The demonstration was eventually broken up by the NYPD, with CUNY officials citing the presence of non-affiliated protesters and safety concerns as the reason.<\/p>\n

The other campus where an encampment was dismantled that night, Columbia University, had their federal research funding revoked over antisemitism allegations and settled with the Trump administration over the summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That same month, a Republican-led congressional committee hauled CUNY Chancellor F\u00e9lix Matos Rodr\u00edguez to Washington<\/a> to answer for faculty groups and DEI policies that they alleged incite antisemitism on college campuses.<\/p>\n

Gov. Hochul on Wednesday called on CUNY, which is reportedly investigating the epsiode, to hold people accountable for last week\u2019s incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is antisemitism, plain and simple. No one should be singled out, targeted, or shamed because they are Jewish,\u201d she wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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