Columbia Announces Resignation of Three Deans Over ‘Anti-Semitic Tropes’ in Their Writings

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Three Columbia University deans involved in what the university’s administration called disturbing text message exchanges involving “old anti-Semitic tropes” have resigned, a university spokesman said late on Thursday.

Cristen Kromm, former dean of undergraduate student life, Matthew Patashnick, former associate dean of student and family support, and Susan Chang-Kim, former associate dean and chief administrative officer, were placed on leave earlier while an investigation was underway.

The message exchanges took place during a campus event titled “Jewish Life on Campus: Past, Present and Future” and follow weeks of protests at Columbia and other campuses across the country over Israel’s war in Gaza, the university administration said in July.

“This incident revealed behavior and sentiments that were not only unprofessional, but also disturbingly touched on long-standing anti-Semitic tropes,” the university said in July.

The three resigning deans could not be reached for comment. A university spokesman who confirmed their resignations did not provide further details.

The United States has been witnessing months of protests against American support for Israel’s war in Gaza that has killed about 40,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million and sparking a food crisis.

The latest bloodbath in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was sparked on October 7 when the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which rules Gaza, attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The Israeli attack on Gaza has also given rise to accusations of genocide before the International Court of Justice. Israel denies these accusations and in turn accuses Hamas of seeking to commit genocide against Israel.

Protesters on campus demanded an end to the war, an end to U.S. military support for Israel and divestment by universities from companies that support Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

Allegations of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic rhetoric have been made at some protests and counter-protests.

Columbia itself has become a center of protests, with students setting up camps and police making violent arrests.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Stephen Coates)