3 Columbia University officials lose posts over texts that ‘touched on ancient antisemitic tropes’
NEW YORK — Columbia University said Monday it has removed three administrators from their positions and will place them on indefinite leave after it emerged that text messages they exchanged during a campus discussion about Jewish life “troublingly touched on longstanding anti-Semitic elements.”
In a letter to the Columbia community, university President Minouche Shafik and Provost Angela Olinto said the administrators have been permanently removed from their positions at the university’s undergraduate Columbia College. The college’s dean, who previously apologized for his role in the text exchanges, will remain in that role.
The university will also launch a “robust” anti-Semitism and anti-discrimination training program for faculty and staff in the fall, as well as related trainings for students, Shafik said.
The administrators, whom the university did not name, were first suspended last month after a conservative news channel published images of what it said were text messages they exchanged while attending the May 31 panel discussion “Jewish Life on Campus: Past, Present, and Future.”
The House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor published some messages last week.
“This incident revealed behavior and sentiments that were not only unprofessional but disturbingly touched upon old anti-Semitic tropes,” Shafik wrote. “Whether intended or not, these sentiments are unacceptable and deeply troubling.”
Shafik said the text messages conveyed a “lack of seriousness about the concerns and experiences of members of our Jewish community,” which is inconsistent with the university’s values and standards.
Olinto wrote that the administrators’ behavior was “wrong and inconsistent with the mission and values of our institution. It demonstrated, at best, an ignorance of the history of anti-Semitism.”
The news outlet, the Washington Free Beacon, published examples of what it called some of these text exchanges on June 12 and 21.
One of the posts was that a panelist could have used the recent protests on campus as an opportunity to raise money. Another was a post criticizing a campus rabbi’s essay on anti-Semitism.
The panel on anti-Semitism was held a month after university officials called in police to evict pro-Palestinian protesters from an occupied administration building and dismantle a tent encampment that threatened to disrupt graduation ceremonies.
The police action came amid deep divisions on campus over whether some protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza were anti-Semitic.
Columbia College Dean Josef Sorett, whose text messages were among those published by the Free Beacon, will continue to lead the college after apologizing and pledging to work to repair the harm caused by the text exchanges, Olinto said. He and his administration are expected to “bring about concrete change in the fight against anti-Semitism and discrimination and create a fully inclusive environment,” Olinto wrote.
“While not intended, some of the text messages exchanged may invoke anti-Semitic tropes,” Sorett said in a letter to the Columbia College community Monday. “Any language that disparages members of our community, or divides us from one another, is simply unacceptable.”
“I am deeply sorry that this has happened in a community that I lead, and that I was part of one of the exchanges, and I pledge to lead the change that we need to ensure that this never happens again,” Sorett continued, saying that “the loss of trust and the pain that this incident has caused, particularly to the Jewish members of our community, must be fully repaired.”