Antisemites reveal personal info about Jewish professors at Columbia

Israeli professor says many of his colleagues fail to grasp the danger posed by the ongoing protests.

Lists of Jewish and Israeli professors containing their personal information were distributed among pro-Hamas protesters who have set up encampments at Columbia University in New York, according to an Israeli lecturer at the school.

Professor Itsik Pe’er, who is the deputy chair of the Computer Science Department at Columbia, told Hebrew-language TV news that the anti-Israel demonstrations at the school had led to a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli students and staff.

When asked if he felt safe as a Jewish Israeli on campus, Pe’er demurred.

It’s widely believed that a document with the names and contact information of Jewish and Israeli staff were circulated among the anti-Israel demonstrators, Pe’er said.

“But it’s important for me, on a personal level, to be there for my students who are looking for support from faculty,” he told the Morning News with Nesli Barda.

“The most violent demonstrations are at the campus gates,” he said, but “this does not help the university employees who have to get to work through a subway station that is under siege.”

Pe’er noted that while entry to the campus is supposed to be limited to students and staff, the anti-Israel demonstrators are “managing to smuggle people in,” swelling the number of protestors.

He said that the safeguards in place meant to prevent unauthorized people from entering the campus have failed.

However, Pe’er said, many of his colleagues are failing to appreciate the dangers of the ongoing protests. Some of the other professors at Columbia were opposed to police being called in to dismantle an anti-Israel protest encampment set up on campus.

“They think it’s a matter of freedom of expression and that they should express themselves,” Pe’er told the Morning News program.

“They don’t understand that the protests have been increasing in intensity and violence over the past six months.”

American college campusesantisemitism on campuscampus antisemtismcollege campusesColumbiaColumbia University