Columbia University administrators reportedly mocked complaints from Jews about anti-Semitism on campus, even using vomit emojis to dismiss the claims.
On May 31, a panel discussion about Jewish Life on campus featured David Schizer, former dean of Columbia Law School; Brian Cohen, executive director of Columbia’s Kraft Center for Jewish Life; Ian Rottenberg, dean of religious life; and Rebecca Massel, a reporter for the student newspaper who wrote about the campus protests.
Some Columbia administrators were in the audience: Josef Sorett, the dean of Columbia College; Susan Chang-Kim, the vice dean and chief administrative officer of Columbia College; Cristen Kromm, the dean of undergraduate student life; and Matthew Patashnick, the associate dean for student and family support,” The Washington Free Beacon reported.
Chang-Kim and the other administrators texted each other during the panel. An audience member sitting behind Chang-Kim photographed the texts and provided them to the Beacon.
Massel was asked to expound on “the experience of Jewish and Israeli students on campus.” Chang-Kim texted Kromm and Patashnick: “Did we really have students being kicked out of clubs for being Jewish?”
In October 2023, Columbia’s campus rabbi, Yonah Hain, wrote a column in The Columbia Spectator in which he spoke of anti-Semitism on the university’s campus:
Our community’s normalization of Hamas is a point-of-no-return moment at Columbia. Debates about Zionism, one state or two states, occupation, and Israeli military and government policy are all welcome conversations on campus. We won’t all see eye to eye about this current Israel-Hamas war and about our notions of proportionality, restraint, and ceasefire. Indeed, these issues occupy a prominent role in discourse within the Jewish community itself. What’s not up for debate is that massacring Jews is unequivocally wrong.
While the panel discussed the anti-Semitism on campus and emotional testimony was offered, Kromm texted Chang-Kim and Patashnick, “And we thought Yonah sounded the alarm…” accompanied by two vomit emojis.
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Patashnick apparently mocked one of the panelists, writing, “He knows exactly what he’s doing and how to take full advantage of this moment. Huge fundraising potential.” Chang-Kim texted back, “Double Urgh.”
Chang-Kim texted Kromm and Patashnick: “This panel is really making the administration look like jokers.” Patashnick answered, “Yep.”