Columbia University president testifies in House antisemitism probe

The congressional hearing on Columbia University’s response to antisemitism has now been adjourned.

“We’re deeply disturbed by what we’re seeing at Columbia, any of the things we’ve heard in today’s hearing,” US Rep. Virginia Foxx said.

US Rep. Ilhan Omar asked Shafik what the school’s policies are for professors who harass students online. Shafik said one professor, Columbia Business School assistant professor Shai Davidai, is under investigation for harassment.

Davidai called Shafik a “coward” in a fiery speech last year criticizing the university president for failing to quiet “pro-terror” voices at the school.

The same professor has more than 50 complaints against him, Shafik said.

“As president, I’m used to being attacked, but attacking our students is unacceptable,” Shafik said.

Columbia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Davidai said to CNN that he has never spoken against students by name, only “pro-Hamas” student organizations and professors.

“They’re investigating me for the entire reason the entire reason this hearing was held in the first place. Columbia is investigating me for my social media tweets and only my social media tweets,” he said.

(L-R) President of Columbia University Nemat “Minouche” Shafik, David Schizer, Dean Emeritus and Harvey R. Miller Professor of Law & Economics and Columbia Law School, Co-Chair of Board of Trustees at Columbia University Claire Shipman testify before the House Committee on Education & the Workforce at Rayburn House Office Building on April 17, 2024 in Washington, DC. The committee held a hearing on “Columbia in Crisis: Columbia University’s Response to Antisemitism.”

Shafik and David M. Schizer, the former dean of the Columbia University Law School and co-chair of the university’s task force combatting antisemitism, said a March article by the New York Times that said members of Columbia’s task force could not settle on the definition of antisemitism is inaccurate but stopped short of calling it false.

“For me personally, any discrimination against people for their Jewish faith is antisemitism,” Shafik said.

Shafik told US Rep. Lisa McClain she is “pretty sure” that the rest of the university’s task force combatting antisemitism would agree with that definition.

Schizer’s definition was more detailed.

“It’s bias against Jewish people, which can manifest as ethnic slurs, stereotyping, Holocaust denial, double standards as applies to Israel, and antisemitic tropes,” Schizer said.

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik answers a question from Rep. Elise Stefanik at a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing about antisemitism on university campuses, today in Washington, DC.

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik said the school is firing a professor who allegedly expressed support for Hamas on social media following the October 7 terror attack on Israel.

Rep. Elise Stefanik said Columbia hired Mohamed Abdou as a professor after the terror attack even though she said he posted support for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic Jihad on October 11. 

“I share with you your repugnance at those remarks. I completely understand that. On my watch, for faculty who make remarks that cross the line in terms of antisemitism, there will be consequences,” Shafik said. 

Speaking specifically about Abdou, Shafik said: “He has been terminated.”

Shafik also said that Abdou is grading his students’ papers but will “never teach at Columbia again and that will be on his permanent record.”

Columbia did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when Abdou’s termination takes effect. 

Shafik added that there are five instances of faculty who have either been removed from classrooms or dismissed. 

David M. Schizer speaks during the "Columbia in Crisis: Columbia University's Response to Antisemitism" hearing today in Washington, DC.

Former Dean of Columbia University Law School and co-chair of the university’s task force combatting antisemitism David M. Schizer drew on his personal experience with antisemitism in his opening statement to the House Education and the Workforce committee.

“A student wearing a shirt with an Israeli flag was pinned against the wall by a protester and told to keep f-ing running when he broke free,” Professor Schizer told the committee, “when I heard this, my first thought was of my grandfather.”

Schizer said his grandfather grew up in Ukraine, “and his grandfather was lynched in a pogrom.”

 A few years later, he said, his grandfather “almost met the same fate.”

“A group of antisemitic thugs put my grandfather up against the wall and were about to shoot him, but he managed to get away,” he said.

Schizer said that the work of the task force combatting antisemitism “has not been easy.”  

“There is a lot to do, and we aren’t yet where we need to be, but we are making real progress,” he said.

“Being a Zionist should not disqualify someone from a dance group or a theater production,” he said, adding, “this sort of pressure, signifying that Jews are only acceptable if they reject a core part of their religion and identity, well, it sounds like old fashioned bigotry to me.”

The task force issued a report to the university recommending four rules governing protests, which Schizer says the university is implementing, and that the task force plans to issue another report in May following additional listening sessions with students “to describe student encounters with antisemitism, discuss definitions of antisemitism, and recommend changes in orientation, student services and student groups.”

Schizer said the task force will issue more reports in the next academic year. 

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik answers a question from Rep. Tim Walberg during her testifying at the House committee hearing today.

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik condemned a professor who praised the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

“I do condemn his statement. I am appalled by what he said,” Shafik said in response to a question from Rep. Tim Walberg. “He has been spoken to.”

The day after the Hamas attack, Columbia professor Joseph Massad described the brutal terror attack as a “stunning victory” in an online article.

Shafik said Massad is no longer chairing an academic review committee at Columbia. 

Rep. Elise Stefanik at the House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing about antisemitism on university campuses, today in Washington, DC.

Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik called Columbia University’s response to tenured professor Joseph Massad, who a day after the October 7 attack penned a piece online that labeled it “awesome,” is unacceptable.

Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, said Massad had been “spoken to” by members of his department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies. Shafik said she did not participate in those discussions.

She declined to say if any further disciplinary actions were taken but said he has “not repeated anything like that ever since.” She confirmed Massad is still on the Columbia faculty but was unsure if he’s currently teaching.

Massad is still listed as chair of the Academic Review Committee on a Columbia site. In a prior line of questioning Shafik said that “he is no longer chair of that committee and does not have a leadership role.”

Stefanik later pointed out the site that still says Massad chairs the committee. Shafik replied that she would “like to confirm that” and she was “not sure” if he had been removed.

Columbia and Massad didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. 

David Greenwald, the co-chair of the board of trustees at Columbia, told Stefanik Massad’s comments were “abhorrent” and he should be removed from the position.

All four Columbia officials testifying before Congress unequivocally stated that calls for the genocide of Jews violate the university’s code of conduct.

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici asked Columbia President Minouche Shafik, board co-chairs David Greenwald and Claire Shipman and David Schizer, co-chair of a task force on antisemitism, for a simple yes or no response. All four said “yes,” calls for the genocide of Jews would violate Columbia’s code of conduct.

The response offered a stark contrast to the lawyerly answers that university presidents provided during the December hearing before the same committee. That moment went viral, sparking an uproar that eventually contributed to the ousters of the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.

Of course, the Columbia officials had the advantage of having months to prepare for that question.

Days after the December hearing, Columbia issued a statement saying: “Calls for genocide against the Jewish community or any other group are abhorrent, inconsistent with our values and against our rules.” 

Columbia University's Board of Trustees co-chair Claire Shipman speaks during the "Columbia in Crisis: Columbia University's Response to Antisemitism" hearing today in Washington, DC.

Claire Shipman, co-chair of Columbia University’s board of trustees, said it is “difficult and heartbreaking” to hear members of the university community feel unsafe.

“I feel this current climate on our campus viscerally. It’s unacceptable. I can tell you plainly that I am not satisfied with where Columbia is at this moment,” Shipman said. “As co-chair of the Board, I bear responsibility for that.”

The Columbia official noted that the university shut its gates for demonstrations and backed the decision to invite the New York City Police department onto campus for the first time since 1968.

“The last six months on our campus have served as an extreme pressure test. Our systems were not equipped to manage the unfolding situation,” Shipman said.

Shipman added that Columbia plans to continue to hold people accountable.

“We are far from done. I am outraged by the vile sentiments I continue to hear by those who ignore our rules,” she said. 

Columbia University president Minouche Shafik during her opening remarks at a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing about antisemitism on university campuses, today in Washington, DC.

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik acknowledged in her opening remarks that there is more the Ivy League school must do to fight antisemitism and support academic freedom.

“Trying to reconcile the free speech rights of those who want to protest and the rights of Jewish students to be in an environment free of harassment or discrimination has been the central challenge on our campus, and many others, in recent months,” Shafik said in her prepared remarks.

The Columbia president described the steps the university has taken to secure the campus and protect students since the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, including changing policies and launching an updated reporting process and improved training.

“We do not, and will not, tolerate antisemitic threats, images, and other violations,” Shafik said. “We have enforced, and we will continue to enforce, our policies against such actions.”

Shafik said that she believes the university can “confront antisemitism and provide a safe campus environment for our community while simultaneously supporting religious academic exploration and freedom.”

“This is the highest priority right now at Columbia, and I believe we are moving in the right direction,” Shafik said. “There is, to be sure, much more work to do, and we welcome feedback from our students and other members of the Columbia community, from Jewish leaders and organizations, and from this Committee.”

The opening remarks of the four Columbia University witnesses underscore the dilemma facing university administrators since October 7th.

At the core of the university’s mission is to “ensure that all members of our community may engage in our cherished traditions of free expression and open debate,” Columbia President Minouche Shafik said in her testimony, quoting from the school’s rules of university conduct.

“We believe that Columbia’s role is not to shield individuals from positions that they find unwelcome, but instead to create an environment where different viewpoints can be tested and challenged,” Shafik added. However, she acknowledged that freedom of speech has been used to justify chants and language that has made students feel unsafe.

David Schizer, a former Columbia Law School dean and co-chair of the university’s task force on antisemitism, said the school “needs better rules about where and when protests can be held. The right to protest has to be protected, regardless of subject matter or viewpoint.” For instance, he recommended that protests don’t take place in academic buildings.

House Education Committee Chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx during opening remarks at a "Columbia in Crisis: Columbia University's Response to Antisemitism" hearing today in Washington, DC.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, the Republican chairwoman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, slammed Columbia University in her opening remarks on Wednesday as a hotbed of antisemitism that has failed to protect students.

“Since October 7, this Committee and the nation have watched in horror as so many of our college campuses, particularly the most expensive, so-called elite schools, have erupted into hotbeds of antisemitism and hate,” Foxx said in her opening remarks. “Columbia University is one of the worst of those hotbeds, and we have seen far too little, far too late done to counter that and protect students and staff.”

She pointed to recent events on campus, including an Israeli student being beaten by a stick four days after the October 7 Hamas attacks.

“Columbia stands guilty of gross negligence at best and at worst has become a platform for those supporting terrorism and violence against the Jewish people,” Foxx said.

People walk past Columbia University in New York on October 30, 2023.

Shafik has been criticized by students who say she has not protected them from harassment.

Last fall, a Columbia student who was hanging posters on campus in support of Israel was assaulted. Days later, a mobile “doxxing” billboard drove outside the entrance of Columbia displaying the names and faces of students who a conservative nonprofit said were linked to a statement blaming Israel for the Hamas terror attack.

“Some students, including at Columbia, have been victims of doxing,” Shafik said in an October statement. “This form of online harassment, involving the public posting of names and personal information, has been used by extremists to target communities and individuals. This kind of behavior also will not be tolerated and should be reported through appropriate school channels. When applicable, we will refer these cases to external authorities.”

University leaders had also issued a statement condemning “disturbing antisemitic and Islamophobic acts, including intimidation and outright violence.”

Nemat "Minouche" Shafik in May 2018 during the Bank of England's (BOE) Markets Forum at Bloomberg's European headquarters in London, U.K. She was then the Director of the London School of Economics (LSE).

The Egypt-born academic and economic policy expert has been president of the New York City Ivy League university since July 2023. She’s had big shoes to fill in her less than a year so far – her predecessor, Lee C. Bollinger,  was the longest-serving Ivy League president at the time he stepped down, according to Columbia.

Shafik’s family fled Egypt in the 1960s, when the country was in the midst of political and economic turmoil, according to Columbia. She was raised in the American South.

Shafik had been the World Bank’s youngest-ever vice president at age 36. She’s also worked in prominent positions for the UK’s Department for International Development, the International Monetary Fund, an the Bank of England. She returned to academia in 2017 at the London School of Economics.

Shafik graduated from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with a degree in economics and politics, a maser of scince in economics from the London School of Economics, and a PhD in economics from Oxford University.

Since her appointment, Shafik has pointed out out barriers lite universities.

“How can you be an elite institution at the frontier of human knowledge while not being elitist?” Shafik said in a YouTube video introducing her as the school’s president.

Minouche Shafik during a commencement ceremony at Columbia University in New York, on May 17, 2023.

Shafik outlined what she plans to tell Congress in an essay published in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday. She highlighted the conflict balancing free speech rights of pro-Palestinian protestors and the impact of these protests on Jewish students and supporters.

She said that the October 7 Hamas attack had a “deep personal impact” on the Jewish and Israeli community, but at the same time, there was a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, and the war was “part of a larger story of Palestinian displacement.”

Calling for the genocide of any group of people does not have a place at Columbia, she said.

House Education Committee Chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina, will preside over today’s hearing and present the opening remarks. Foxx’s committee has demanded documents on how Jewish students are treated from Harvard University, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She claimed Harvard “absolutely failed ” to comply with the investigation.

Dr. Nemat “Minouche” Shafik, Columbia’s president, will serve as a witness. Also up are Board of Trustees co-chairs Claire Shipman and David Greenwald, and David Schizer, dean emeritus and a law and economics professor at Columbia Law School.