Columbia University Suspends Three Deans Over ‘Anti-Semitism’ in Private Messages

Columbia University has suspended three administrators, saying they exchanged anti-Semitic text messages during a seminar on Jewish life on campus in May.

In a letter released Monday, Columbia President Nemat Shafik said the trustees had “worryingly addressed long-standing anti-Semitic tropes.”

“Whether intentional or not, these sentiments are unacceptable and deeply disturbing, and demonstrate a lack of seriousness about the concerns and experiences of members of our Jewish community,” Shafik wrote.

The suspension came after conservative news outlet The Washington Free Beacon leaked photographs of the three deans’ text messages, including one using two vomit emojis in response to a reference to an article in Columbia’s student newspaper by Yonah Hain, the campus rabbi, about students’ response to Oct. 7.

In the article, Hain writes, “Debates about Zionism, one state or two states… are welcome conversations on campus,” but he says statements of support for the “Palestinian Resistance” amounted to the “normalization of Hamas… (and) a moment of no return at Columbia.”

In another text message exchange, a dean asked the others if it was true that Columbia students had been kicked out of clubs because they were Jewish.

The three deans include Cristen Kromm, the former dean of undergraduate student life; Matthew Patashnick, the former associate dean for student and family support; and Susan Chang-Kim, the former associate dean and chief administrative officer.

In another exchange, Chang-Kim expressed reservations about discussing anti-Semitism. “It’s hard to hear, but I’m trying to keep an open mind to learn more about that point of view,” she wrote.

In another message, Patashnick said one of the speakers was “taking full advantage of this moment,” adding “huge fundraising potential.” In another exchange, the deans appeared to suggest that the mother of a Jewish student had access to Columbia administration because of her wealth.

Josef Sorett, the dean of Columbia College, was also involved in the message exchange but has not been placed on leave.

The deans’ suspension is the latest example of how Ivy League universities have sought to stifle critical speech about Israel or simply challenge the notion that students who express pro-Palestinian sentiments are inciting anti-Semitism.

Late last year, Columbia University decided to ban two pro-Palestinian student groups, the student chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine.

But Ivy League universities have come under fire from both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students. While critics of Israel’s war on Gaza have been repressed on campus, other students have pushed the administration to take even harsher measures.

On July 2, more than 1,000 Columbia students and alumni wrote a letter demanding that Sorett and the other deans be removed.

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Columbia has been at the center of the student protest movement in solidarity with Gaza in recent months.

On April 30, university administrators ordered police to conduct a sweep on the campuses of Columbia University and the City College of New York. Police eventually arrested about 300 protesters. Witnesses told Middle East Eye that police assaulted a number of protesters and prevented them from receiving medical attention.

The police operation was launched after Columbia students took control of Hamilton Hall, a campus building, and renamed it “Hind’s Hall,” after the six-year-old Palestinian girl was killed by Israeli tank fire in February.

Columbia also came under heavy criticism after the board of the university’s law journal shut down the website over its publication of an article accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza while calling for a new framework to examine the Palestinian question.

Last month, alumni of the university signed a letter pledging to suspend “all financial, programmatic and academic support” to the university until a list of 13 demands is met, including divestment from “all companies and institutions that fund or profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine.”

The letter, which currently has more than 2,200 signatories, also includes a demand that the university fund necessary health care for students “brutalized by the NYPD” on April 30.

Republicans, meanwhile, have attacked the leaders of several major universities, accusing them of not doing enough to suppress the protests.

In December, a congressional hearing was held by lawmakers in which the presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania were called to testify about their responses to the student protest movement.

Republicans used the hearing to criticize the presidents and accuse them of allowing anti-Semitism to flourish on campus, in reference to the pro-Palestine protests.

A few days after the hearing, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned from her position. And the following month, in January, Harvard President Claudine Gay also resigned.