Schumer Reportedly Dismissed Columbia Antisemitism Backlash, Claiming Only Republicans Were Upset

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) reportedly told Columbia University administrators to ignore the backlash they were receiving over the school’s handling of antisemitism on campus earlier this year, according to a new report from the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Text messages included in the 300-page report reveal Schumer told then-university president Minouche Shafik that the school’s “political problems are really only among Republicans” and advised that its leaders should just “keep heads down” until the controversy came to an end.

The revelation came as part of the committee’s monthslong investigation, which included reviewing more than 400,000 documents from eleven schools, including Columbia, Harvard University, Yale University, Northwestern University, and the University of California, Los Angeles, that were roiled earlier this year by pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests.

The private emails and text messages of university leaders, including Shafik, who later resigned from her leadership role in August, were among the documents reviewed. 

In texts with board of trustees co-chairs David Greenwald and Claire Shipman in January, Shafik revealed she had spoken with Schumer, whom she described as “very positive and supportive (and quite the storyteller).”

“When asked, Schumer and his staff indicated they did not believe it was necessary for the University’s leaders to meet with Republicans,” the report states. “Greenwald echoed this, writing in response, ‘If we are keeping our head down, maybe we shouldn’t meet with Republicans.'”

In the days that followed, Greenwald sent his predecessor, Jonathan Lavine, a New York Times article on the committee’s “aggressive and expansive investigation into institutions of higher education.”

“Let’s hope the Dems win the house back,” Lavine wrote. 

Greenwald agreed, saying, “Absolutely.”

Yet in April, Schumer blasted “lawlessness” at the Columbia protests after rioters occupied Hamilton Hall, renaming it “Hind’s Hall” in commemoration of the death of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. Demonstrators vandalized the building, breaking doors and windows, and blockaded entrances before the NYPD performed a sweep of the building.

At least 300 protesters were arrested at Columbia and the City College of New York, including 119 people who barricaded themselves inside the admissions building on Columbia’s campus. New York City mayor Eric Adams said at the time that he believed outside agitators were responsible for the protests’ escalation. However, many of those who were arrested had their charges dismissed or were let off with probation.

“Smashing windows with hammers and taking over university buildings is not free speech. It is lawlessness. And those who did it should promptly face consequences that are not merely a slap on the wrist,” Schumer said in a floor speech at the time. “Campuses cannot be places of learning and argument and discussion when protests veer into criminality.”

The House report ultimately reaches several conclusions about the spread of antisemitism on college campuses, including that the universities were willing to make “astounding” concessions to protesters” and that schools failed to discipline students who engaged in antisemitic activities.

Columbia University offered protesters greater concessions than previously reported, including formal reviews of divestment from some companies and a potential partnership with a Palestinian university “where Hamas is active on campus.” At Northwestern, meanwhile, administrators discussed taking Sabra hummus off campus to comply with protesters’ demands.

“For over a year, the American people have watched antisemitic mobs rule over so-called elite universities, but what was happening behind the scenes is arguably worse. While Jewish students displayed incredible courage and a refusal to cave to the harassment, university administrators, faculty, and staff were cowards who fully capitulated to the mob and failed the students they were supposed to serve,” committee chair Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.) said. 

The report found several schools withheld support from Jewish students.

“The Committee’s investigation found that in multiple cases, these failures came not from mere ignorance or lack of forethought, but rather from intentional decisions by university leaders not to provide their campuses’ Jewish communities the necessary support needed to ensure they felt safe to live on campus or attend classes,” the report read.