Three days after the University announced it would suspend Students for Justice in Palestine and BC/CU Jewish Voice for Peace, an open letter titled “From Jewish Students: Protecting the Free Speech of our Peers” began circulating among Columbia and Barnard students. 

On Monday, an open letter, titled “From Jewish Students: Protecting the Free Speech of our Peers,” began circulating Columbia’s online community spaces. The letter, which identifies its authors only as “concerned Jewish students at Columbia and Barnard,” condemns the University’s recent decision to suspend Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and BC/CU Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), two student groups who have organized a number of pro-Palestine demonstrations on campus in the last month. The full text of the letter can be found below.

Though the letter is not attributed to one specific student or student group, its authors specified that all Barnard and Columbia students are welcome to add their names. Further, the authors wrote that the purpose of the letter was to “unequivocally condemn the censorship of pro-Palestine speech,” specifically referencing the suspension of SJP and JVP. The authors wrote that “some of us identify as zionist, anti-zionist, or somewhere in between.” However, they continued by explaining that they all shared the belief that the University’s “vilification and censorship of some beliefs—but not others—not only threatens the safety of the students holding these beliefs, but the sanctity of university life as a whole.” The authors are still collecting signatures, but at the time of publication have published around 50 names.

The open letter comes three days after the University announced it would suspend SJP and JVP for the remainder of the Fall semester, claiming the groups “repeatedly violated University policies related to holding campus events,” including an “unauthorized event… that proceeded despite warnings and included threatening rhetoric and intimidation.” Under their current suspension, the groups will not be allowed to access University funding or hold events on campus. According to the University, the two groups will only see their suspensions lifted if they “demonstrat[e] a commitment to compliance with University policies and engag[e] in consultations at a group leadership level with University officials.” Of the suspension, the authors of Monday’s open letter wrote that as Jewish students, they feel the action was “unjustly taken in our names.” 

The letter also comes two weeks after members of Barnard and Columbia’s faculty released a similar open letter, criticizing Barnard President Laura Rosenbury for what they called attempts by the College to “undermine academic freedom and free speech.” Specifically, the letter took issue with an October 26 email from Rosenbury, in which the president wrote that she was “appalled and saddened to see antisemitism and anti-Zionism spreading throughout Barnard and Columbia.” The letter’s authors wrote that Rosenbury’s “conflation” of antisemitism and anti-Zionism “endangers Barnard students, faculty, staff and alumni,” and is “not sustainable on any serious, critical intellectual grounds,” rather serving as “an act of suppression of political perspectives.” At the time, the letter’s authors also alleged that the College had engaged in an “overt act of censorship” in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department after a faculty statement in solidarity with Palestine was removed by administrators from the department’s website.

Beyond its suspension of SJP and JVP, the authors of Monday’s open letter took direct issue with the way the University has interacted with its Jewish student population since the first protest occurred last month, writing, “In the administration’s attempts to paint Jewish voices as a monolith, they have contributed to the pinning of Jewish life and liberty as inherently at odds with Palestinian liberation. It is this division that not only fuels the escalation of “charged tensions” on campus, but also weakens the primary goal of Columbia as a university: to facilitate global change through open, and at times controversial, dialogues and inquiry about our world’s most pressing issues.” 

More specifically, the group accused the University of being “silent” when “neo-Nazis have infiltrated campus, yelling things like ‘F*ck the Jews’ and comparing Judaism to white supremacy.” Further, the authors also criticized the University’s recently-announced Task Force on Antisemitism, writing that the task force was “created from the top-down with no student input and no equivalence for our peers facing Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate.” 

The group also alleged that the recently-announced Anti-Doxing Resource Group, which was created in response to the appearance of doxing trucks on campus, has “still not responded to the more than 30 complaints it has received.” With regard to the doxing trucks, the authors also wrote that “the task of covering the names of our peers on these trucks has been taken on by student group chats, largely made up of Jewish students who feel we must put ourselves in harm’s way to proclaim that this is not what we represent.” 

“You are not supporting your Jewish community against antisemitism,” the authors wrote. “You are scapegoating us in an attempt to censor dissent. In the process, you are also fueling the rise in Islamophobia and hate that is actively endangering our peers.” 

The authors further criticized the University for “conflat[ing]” the SJP and JVP’s solidarity with Palestine for antisemitism, writing, “When you allude to recent and historical threats to the Jewish community to justify the silencing of students critical of your university—a large faction of whom are Jewish themselves—you are effectively cowering behind our grief and weaponizing our trauma. In doing so, this administration has shown that their priority is not truly protecting the Jewish community, but rather stifling pro-Palestine voices critical of the institution itself.” 

The letter concludes with a demand for the University to “immediately end the suspension” of JVP and SJP, and to “ensure that any working definitions of antisemitism make space for and protect legitimate criticism of Israel and Zionism,” writing, “No group’s safety can come at the expense of another’s and a threat to any group’s expression is a threat to us all.”

Open Letter in response to the suspension of SJP and JVP: 

From Jewish Students: Protecting the Free Speech of our Peers

As concerned Jewish students at Columbia and Barnard, our points of view are wildly diverse. Some of us identify as zionist, anti-zionist or somewhere in between. Some of us proudly support every demand put forth by JVP and SJP while others openly disagree. Where our vast array of perspectives coincide is in the knowledge that Columbia University’s and Barnard College’s vilification and censorship of some beliefs – but not others – not only threatens the safety of the students holding these beliefs but the sanctity of university life as a whole. That is why we are writing this letter to unequivocally condemn the censorship of pro-Palestine speech, which has now escalated into the suspension of SJP and JVP. 

We applaud the bravery of JVP, SJP and others who continue to express their views even in the face of unprecedented censorship attempts, both by the university itself and by fear-mongering watch dogs such as the company behind the doxxing trucks, Accuracy in Media. Furthermore, we recognize that for people in both organizations — Jewish and Arab alike — this is a time of unbearable grief, and having empathy for one another should be at the forefront of our community’s consciousness. The university administration should be the leading example of this collective empathy in a time of unfathomable personal catastrophe, but instead they’ve chosen to feed into and exacerbate our division.

In the administration’s attempts to paint Jewish voices as a monolith, they have contributed to the pinning of Jewish life and liberty as inherently at odds with Palestinian liberation. It is this division that not only fuels the escalation of “charged tensions” on campus, but also weakens the primary goal of Columbia as a university: to facilitate global change through open, and at times controversial, dialogues and inquiry about our world’s most pressing issues. To completely censor the two most prominent student organizations representing the Palestinian perspective, one of whom is explicitly Jewish in nature, is to stunt all Israel/Palestine discourse through intimidation and violation of our academic freedom.

We as Jewish community members explicitly condemn the silencing of pro-Palestinian student voices because we feel this action has been unjustly taken in our names. We ask the administration: how can you claim the censorship of non-violent protests is out of concern for our safety while also being silent when neo-Nazis have infiltrated campus, yelling things like “F*ck the Jews” and comparing Judaism to White Supremacy? Why has the Anti-Doxxing Working Group – created in response to the trucks that are openly targeting Arab, Muslim, and BIPOC students, threatening their academic and career futures as well as their most basic bodily safety – still not responded to the more than 30 complaints it has received? Why has an antisemitism task force been created from the top-down with no student input and no equivalence for our peers facing Islamophobia and Anti-Arab hate? And why has the task of covering the names of our peers on these trucks been taken on by student group chats, largely made up of Jewish students who feel we must put ourselves in harm’s way to proclaim that this is not what we represent? With these actions and inactions, you are not supporting your Jewish community against antisemitism – you are scapegoating us in an attempt to censor dissent. In the process, you are also fueling the rise in Islamophobia and hate that is actively endangering our peers. 

It is also worth noting that the bedrock of JVP and SJP’s alliance has been the founding of Columbia University Apartheid Divest. Regardless of where we as individual Jewish students may stand on divestment, it is troubling to see our university conflate the criticism they’re facing with the recent upsurge of antisemitism many of us are experiencing. When you allude to recent and historical threats to the Jewish community to justify the silencing of students critical of your university – a large faction of whom are Jewish themselves – you are effectively cowering behind our grief and weaponizing our trauma. In doing so, this administration has shown that their priority is not truly protecting the Jewish community, but rather stifling pro-Palestine voices critical of the institution itself.

Freedom of speech serves to protect every individual regardless of which way the pendulum of institutional power swings, and to threaten that on college campuses is to threaten the most basic of our rights. That is why we as Jewish students at Columbia/Barnard denounce this attempt to capitalize on fear and campus polarization. Instead, we call on all our fellow students to stand up for the freedoms of pro-Palestine student activists regardless of how you situate yourself in this crisis – starting with the signing of this letter. We also ask the Columbia Administration to immediately end the suspension of these student groups, and to ensure that any working definitions of antisemitism make space for and protect legitimate criticism of Israel and Zionism. No group’s safety can come at the expense of another’s and a threat to any group’s expression is a threat to us all.

Featured Image via Bwog Archives