A new federal complaint last week to the U.S. Department of Education is accusing the City University of New York of becoming a “pervasively hostile environment for Jewish students” over the last 10 years.
The July 19 filing from the Washington D.C.-based American Center for Law & Justice cites a laundry list of harassment of Jewish students and faculty, as well as other violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, across the CUNY system and dating back nearly a decade.
Jeffrey Lax, the Orthodox Jewish business department chair at CUNY’s Kingsborough Community College and founder of S.A.F.E. (Students and Faculty for Equality) CUNY, told JNS that this is at least the third known—and to date the broadest—federal complaint lodged on the matter. “I think the point of this filing is to show how pervasive and systemic the anti-Semitism is across the board throughout CUNY,” Lax told JNS.
The Department of Ed has yet to announce results from the first two investigations. Critics accused CUNY of being unresponsive to concerns. Last month, the New York City Council called a hearing on anti-Semitism at CUNY. The meeting was originally scheduled for early June, but after CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez said he wouldn’t be able to make it, the hearing was rescheduled to accommodate him. Matos Rodríguez did not attend the rescheduled hearing.
Lax, who won an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruling against CUNY’S Professional Staff Congress for discrimination, says certain members of the CUNY leadership not only tolerate anti-Semitism but enable it. He cited Kingsborough Community College president Claudia Schrader for failing to speak out after a visibly Jewish student there was viciously attacked by a fellow student. The victim’s religion was cited by the perpetrator during the attack, who yelled “Kill you Jews” after demanding the victim say “Free Palestine.”
Lax claims that Schrader speaks out on nearly every social issue affecting minorities except Jews.
“I emailed her and begged her to speak out [after the attack]. She ignored my email, and she said nothing about it. And this is a president who speaks out when the Asian-American community comes under attack. She supported the black community after George Floyd was killed…,” said Lax. “But when a Kingsborough student beat the living [daylights] out of a Jewish student with a yarmulke, she has nothing to say. She protects the people who harassed me as well. She has a problem with Jews. It’s clear as day. There’s no other conclusion,” he surmised. JNS
WHY DO JEWS CONTINUE TO STUDY AND WORK THERE?