Columbia Jewish faculty file claims against $21m antisemitism fund they say targets dissent

Several Jewish faculty members at Columbia University this week submitted claims to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission seeking compensation from a $21 million antisemitism settlement fund — but their argument is not the one the Trump administration anticipated. In filings shared with the Guardian, six professors alleged that Columbia created a hostile climate for Jews, but said the hostility stemmed from their support for Palestinian rights and student protests, not from their Jewish identity. They accused the university of turning Jews into “scapegoats” by suppressing pro-Palestinian speech under the guise of protecting Jewish safety.

The settlement fund was established as part of Columbia’s deal with the Trump administration last year to end a months-long dispute over the university’s response to campus protests following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack and the subsequent war in Gaza. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission described it as the largest public settlement in nearly two decades. It accompanied a $200 million fine and a series of measures Columbia agreed to impose.

Joseph Howley, a classics professor, wrote in his claim that since speaking in defense of his students during the early protests he had been subjected to endless harassment and disciplinary charges. “I no longer consider Columbia University a safe place to work for Jews who dare to dissent from the political agenda of its most ardently pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian donors and trustees,” he wrote.

Marianne Hirsch, a scholar of antisemitism and the daughter of Holocaust survivors, cited the Jewish principle of tikkun olam — repairing the world — as the reason for her advocacy. “When the only acceptable way to be Jewish is to support Israel unconditionally, there is no longer a way for me to be Jewish on Columbia’s campus,” she wrote in her claim.

EY Zipris, an adjunct professor at Columbia’s Teachers College who was raised in a Hasidic ultra-Orthodox community, said she was called antisemitic for expressing views her own religious parents held. “Had my profoundly observant parents voiced those same perspectives on Columbia’s campus today they would have been called antisemitic and pilloried for their beliefs,” she wrote.

Faculty described being doxed, followed, spat on, screamed at in meetings, accused of professional misconduct, and investigated by the university because of their advocacy. Several noted that after two dozen Jewish faculty members signed an April 2024 letter criticizing the university’s response to student protests, Columbia’s antisemitism taskforce falsely claimed in a report that they had called “for an end to the state of Israel,” listing the faculty’s names in a footnote and prompting a torrent of abuse. The taskforce later edited the report but issued no apology or retraction, and the old version continues to circulate.

The EEOC claim form asked employees whether they had been exposed to “antisemitic or anti-Israeli protests, gatherings, or demonstrations that made you feel threatened, harassed, or were otherwise disruptive to your working environment,” according to screengrabs of the online questionnaire. Faculty said the form conflated anti-Israel sentiment with antisemitism. An EEOC spokesperson said the response to the fund was “robust” and that eligible claimants would start to receive notifications as the agency processes submissions. Columbia did not respond to a request for comment.

Alisa Solomon, a journalism professor at Columbia, said she filed her claim to “intervene in a false narrative” about what constitutes antisemitism on campus. James Schamus, a film producer and professor at Columbia’s school of the arts, wrote that he would donate any payout he receives “to the fight for a just peace in Israel/Palestine and the protection of those fighting for that peace here.”

The faculty said there were real incidents of antisemitism stemming from the protests but categorically rejected accusations that the protests were broadly antisemitic. Their filings represent an effort to reclaim the terms of a debate that has roiled Columbia since October 2023.