Three deans at Columbia University have been placed on leave after sending offensive text messages, including a vomit face emoji, during a panel discussion on anti-Semitism at a recent alumni event.
Photos of a text message exchange between Joseph Surette, Susan Chang Kim, Matthew Patashnik, and Christine Crum, all deans and associate administrators at the Ivy League college, were captured by an alumnus sitting in the crowd during a May 31 panel on Jewish life on campus .
The group exchanged insulting messages throughout the two-hour session, as speakers discussed at length the impact of growing anti-Semitism stoked by Israel’s war against Hamas on Jewish students and faculty at the school.
Speakers included former Columbia Law School Dean David Schizer, co-chair of the elite school’s Anti-Semitism Task Force; Brian Cohen, executive director of the Kraft Center for Jewish Life in Columbia; Ian Rothenberg, dean of religious life at the university; and student Rebecca Massel, who covered anti-Israel protests on campus for the student newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator.
As participants shared their assessments of the painful climate that Jewish students have faced since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel, Columbia University leaders issued sarcastic and mocking messages, Washington Free Beacon mentioned.
In one conversation, Crum, the dean of undergraduate student life, used the upset and vomiting emoji in reference to an October 2023 op-ed in Spectator titled “Sound the alarm,” written by Yona Hein, the school’s campus rabbi.
In it, he warned that the university community had “lost its moral compass” as alarming anti-Israel demonstrations began on campus in the fall.
Crum also made a sarcastic reference to the article when a Jewish graduate burst into tears describing the hostility her daughter experienced as a sophomore.
The sarcastic message read: “And we thought Yona had sounded the alarm…”
Another exchange shows Patashnik, associate dean of student and family support at Columbia University, accusing an unidentified committee member of taking advantage of the situation.
“He knows exactly what to do and how to take full advantage of this moment. Tremendous fundraising potential,” said Chang Kim, vice provost and chief administrative officer at Columbia College, “a dual goal.”
In an email to the Columbia Board of Visitors obtained by the outlet, Surette, the dean of Columbia College, apologized for the “hurt” the messages caused and insisted that the vile comments were not “indicative of the opinions of any individual or the team.”
He also criticized the “unknown third party” who took photos of the group chat, saying that the contents being made public constituted a “violation of privacy.”
In his letter, Surette stressed his “commitment to learning from this situation and other incidents over the past year to build a community of respect and healthy dialogue,” but he had not been placed on leave as of Friday night, the Beacon reported.
In response to university officials being placed on leave, a Columbia University spokesperson told The Post: “We are committed to combating anti-Semitism and taking sustained, concrete action to ensure Columbia is a campus where Jewish students and everyone in our community feel safe and valued.” And able to thrive.”
Columbia University’s Morningside Heights campus became a hotbed of anti-Israel protest activity shortly after Israel began its retaliatory bombing of the Gaza Strip.
Hundreds of protesters set up makeshift tent cities on the campus of the $90,000-a-year school throughout the fall and spring, periodically clashing with police when they were called to disperse unruly crowds.
During one high-profile incident in late April, a huge crowd of masked pro-Hamas rioters occupied the university’s Hamilton Hall building, smashing a window with a hammer and draping a huge flag calling for “intifada” from a second-floor window.
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