We are writing in response to your recent appearance before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Education & the Workforce at the July 15, 2025, hearing titled “Antisemitism in Higher Education: Examining the Role of Faculty, Funding, and Ideology.” During the hearing, you stated that “antisemitism has no place at CUNY.”

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For those of us who have spent years confronting the unchecked antisemitism within the City University of New York (CUNY), your statement rings hollow. The reality is that students, faculty, staff, and administrators at CUNY routinely engage in, encourage, and promote harassment, discrimination, and even violence against Jews, Zionists, and Israelis.

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We assert that throughout your tenure, CUNY faculty, staff, administrators, and senior leaders have been complicit in creating and maintaining a hostile learning [educational] and work environment where Jewish and Israeli students and faculty are not welcome or safe and that you, Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, are incapable of providing the necessary leadership to effectively restore CUNY as [to] a place of academic excellence - one in which faculty are trusted to deliver quality instruction and students graduate prepared to enter the professional world free from [and of] antisemitic prejudice.

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What follows is a collection of testimonies: our own first-hand experiences, along with accounts from current and former students, staff, and faculty, detailing the severe and pervasive hostility faced by the Jewish community across the CUNY system [under your leadership].

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- Silberman School of Social Work at CUNY Hunter College -

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Back on July 28, 2015, along with a cohort of Silberman School of Social Work students, we met with Dean John Rose, who heads the Office of Diversity and Compliance, about a swastika found on campus. His response was focused on the size of the hate symbol, which he regarded as “small,” minimizing the urgency of student safety concerns - a sentiment Dean Rose reiterated to an alum on September 10, 2020, when he stated the swastika was “small, tiny, and virtually unnoticeable.”​

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While Dean Rose was preoccupied with the size of the swastika, we reminded him that an antisemitic article titled "New York legalizes Pedophilia - Since Jews Must Suck on Baby Penises" from a neo-Nazi website JewishProblem.com was shared by a Silberman student on a forum with thousands of Silberman community members.​

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​The shared[?][neo-Nazi] website donned a banner of swastikas along with an image of a rat with a star of David and [the article] explicitly called for the genocide of Jews declaring, “it’s high time Jews start being viewed as cockroaches or any other PEST to be EXTERMINATED without exception." Another sentence [stronger word] from the article read "These jews see babies as sex toys to be exploited at will. Note the look of lust in the eyes of the great faggot, bloody penis licking rabbi." As Jewish students expressed their horror, their peers defended  the article - an indication of pervasive hostility towards the Jewish community [at CUNY]. Silberman awarded this student a diploma and failed to implement effective interventions for the larger Silberman community.

 

That this student was allowed to graduate despite demonstrating a lack of core social work ethics, values, and competency exemplifies a broader issue - Silberman administrators are knowingly graduating students who display conduct that is startlingly below the standards of the profession and harmful to Jewish and other communities. [As you will see, we later found that this was not isolated to Silberman. Students throughout the CUNY system have been graduating despite demonstrating an alarmingly concerning antisemitic bias toward the Jewish community. - something to this effect.] This has been confirmed by Silberman administrators. On May 5, 2014, then-Dean Jacqueline B. Mondros disclosed “that neither students nor the school is doing all it can to ensure that students have the understanding and self-awareness they need to engage diversity thoughtfully and respectfully" - an essential skill, as outlined by the accrediting body for social work education, that is required in order to graduate and necessary to enter into professional practice. Six years later, on August 28, 2020, Caroline Gelman, Senior Associate Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs, affirmed that “these are our graduates and current students engaging in these discussions” and “there is something really wrong if anyone graduates from our program and is holding these views and feels that posting a neo-Nazi screed would in any way fit with the values of social work.” During the same meeting, Mary Cavanaugh, the Dean of Silberman School of Social Work, confirmed that in 2014/2015 (the same year that a Silberman student shared a threatening neo-Nazi article and went on to graduate), the administration was aware of “very, very active, noticeable hatred expressed toward Jewish folks at our school - students in particular. It was so egregious.” Dean Mary Cavanaugh went on to say, “And here we are again and none of us are naïve enough to think that we don’t know that these things are going on.” As Dean Gelman summed up on September 10, 2020: Silberman is “a school of social work and there’s graduates and current students of the program that are making statements that are so inimical to the values of our profession.” ​​​

 

It has been over a decade since we first approached administrators of Silberman and Hunter College with evidence of hostility towards the Jewish community and since we have learned of the administrators’ alarming negligence by graduating students who demonstrate such a severe lack of basic ethical skills [and teaching students how to hate Jews]. To date, we have not seen any indication that the gross failings described have been redressed or even mitigated. In fact, current students and recent graduates are using the same language and rhetoric as those who completed the program over a decade ago. Ten years ago, we heard “antisemitism doesn’t exist anymore.” More recently, students have declared “I don’t believe in antisemitism,” and the Anti-Defamation League “manufactures antisemitism.” There is a Silberman graduate holding a position of influence in the social work field, whose response to a Jewish person’s concern about antisemitism was “it’s because you are annoying.” Recently, a Silberman student mocked a Jewish classmate who expressed concern about antisemitism saying, “let me stop before I make a white woman cry and she victimizes herself and weaponizes her tears.” Silberman students and graduates have accused their Jewish classmates of using “zionist mind games,” “fetishiz[ing] the Holocaust” and using the Holocaust as a “tool…to oppress and kill others.” Rather than appropriately addressing the crisis of pervasive hostility toward the Jewish community, Willie Tolliver, Director of Social Justice and Equity Education, advises new students (including Orthodox Jews) to avoid online groups exclusive to Silberman students and graduates due to “hate speech that’s present there.” To be clear: Silberman’s Director of Social Justice and Equity Education does not trust Silberman students and graduates to refrain from using “hate speech” and creating a hostile environment [for students of Jewish ancestry]. ​​​​​​​​​​​

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Yet, what do we expect from an institution that provides books like “The Jewish Onslaught,” which accuses Jews of “controlling the African slave trade,” claims there is a "Jew[ish] attack on Black progress" and warns "The Jews have made a hell of a mistake this time”? What do we expect from a school whose professors require readings that accuse Jews of “Hitlerism," blame Israel for the rise in antisemitism, equate Zionism to racism, describe Zionism as “a violation of human rights and a threat to international peace and security,” and call for its “elimination”? What more can we expect when one of the professors recommending such articles as “key documents,” Martha Bragin, is selected by the Dean of the school to lead an initiative to combat antisemitism? 
 

The following is what we can expect from an institution that promotes ideas that are so blatantly offensive and antisemitic, serve no educational value, and are taught by professors who are unwilling to present opposing views and/or unable to help students distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources of information [and hold such abhorent views themselves]:

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We can expect faculty to dismiss a student’s safety concerns about conducting home visits alone with men by insisting that those concerns are strictly due to her being an Orthodox Jewish woman.  We can expect faculty who, during class time and in front of impressionable students, make derogatory remarks   about Jewish clients, students, and community members, specifically those from Hasidic and Orthodox communities. We can expect professors who stand by while their students profess antisemitic beliefs, minimize the Holocaust, and baselessly accuse their Jewish peers of “spewing lies.” We can expect professors to sit silently as students make comments like “the Holocaust is a token experience that Jews use to justify claims of antisemitism” and “it’s imperative to remember how much privilege Jews possess in America today” when discussing antisemitism and the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre. We can expect professors who silence and call for an apology from Jewish students when they attempt to defend themselves against such accusations. We can expect professors who violate the school's Code of Conduct by participating in pre-planned [planned, organized, orchestrated] protests that take place during mandatory classes and substantially disrupt learning. We can expect professors who refer to these protests, which violate the school’s code of conduct, as "necessary" - communicating to Jewish students that “class was the right time and right place for the protest” and “safe spaces are not meant for everyone.”   We can expect professors (and Deans) to refuse to provide religious accommodations and create additional barriers for Jewish students who request those [reasonable] accommodations. We can expect school leadership to exclude Jewish students from a leadership program by requiring Saturday attendance knowing, as program Chair James M. Mandiberg relayed, "it would not meet the belief needs of some others.”​​​

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We can expect Silberman student protests that are supported and endorsed by CUNY faculty and staff. Protests such as the ones that took place on October 31, 2023, February 6, 2024, May 14, 2024, and October 8, 2024, during which students left their classrooms, disrupted classes, banged on doors, intentionally obstructed the main entrance and positioned themselves in a way that made their presence unavoidable for students attempting to go to class. Protests where speakers champion the violent October 7th terrorist attack (when Jewish people were brutally raped, murdered and taken hostage) and discourage the crowd from criticizing these “methods of anti-colonial resistance.” We can expect protests where students collectively laugh at members of the Silberman community who express safety concerns and dismiss those feelings as “not based in reality.” We can expect protests that purposely disregard explicit rules of time, place, and manner and unfold in front of campus security, faculty, administration, and staff, but are left uninterrupted.​​​​​​​​​​​

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We can expect Silberman's Student Organization Room - a place designated "for the use of all student organizations" - to prominently display posters justifying October 7th with quotes that read “Zionism is terrorism," "Stop weaponizing the idea of anti-semitism," "There is only one solution INTIFADA REVOLUTION," "GLORY TO RESISTANCE," "We will honor all our martyrs," "Martyrs live forever," and "October 7 was a breakout from the world's largest open-air prison."

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We can expect two consecutive years of faculty, staff, and students "calling for everyone to join in disrupting CUNY commencement ceremonies" and ensuring substantial disruptions with the intention of “NO GRADUATION” for any student. We can expect these disruptions to feature oversized banners flung over balconies, hitting attendees below; calls to “Escalate for Rafah” and for an “intifada revolution”; outbreaks of violence, threats and intimidation against Jewish students and community members; protestors storming the stage and other areas; and graduates shouting “Disclose, Divest, We Will Not Stop, We Will Not Rest” over commencement speakers, turning what should be events of celebration into a painful reminder of the administration’s failure to take reports of harassment and hostility seriously and enforce basic expectations for student conduct. ​​​​​We can expect graduations that Jewish students agonizingly choose not to attend - and are even cautioned not to watch footage of. [and feature commencement speakers whose speeches are filled with anti-Israel, borderline racis[t hate speech]

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Students involved in these protests and disruptions have made clear that they are acting in accordance with what they are taught at Silberman. In statements issued by two separate cohorts in May 2021 and October 2023, Silberman students described a mandatory class as the framework on which they base their anti-Israel actions and by which they justify putting their “learning into practice.”

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As Dean Gelman perfectly stated, antisemitic statements made by Silberman students and graduates are “inimical” to the values of the social work profession. However, they cannot possibly be inimical to the values of Silberman because they are the very “values” being taught, modeled, and perpetuated by Silberman administrators and faculty.​​​

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That antisemitic discrimination and harassment exists within the culture of Silberman is most apparent in how administrators respond to Jewish students experiencing discrimination and harassment when they appeal for support and intervention. In the spring of 2021, Dean Cavanaugh ignored requests   to attend a meeting to discuss a set of coordinated protests in which students and faculty purposefully interrupted class instruction and engaged in antagonistic language toward Jewish students and defamatory rhetoric about the Jewish State. When Director Tolliver, who did agree to the meeting, was asked by multiple students to (at the very least) promptly issue a statement condemning these protests and reaffirming standards of conduct for both students and faculty, he refused and claimed that such a statement would be useless because “people still die” - a response starkly different from the ones the Asian and African American communities rightly received when Silberman immediately issued three separate statements independent of Hunter College condemning hateful behavior toward each targeted group.

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- Hunter College -

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We could appeal to the Hunter College leadership, however at Hunter’s main campus, faculty members host CUNY-funded events featuring moderators like Riham Barghouti, who they credit with founding the BDS movement. They invite panelists who assert the distortion that “Zionism is antisemitism.” At [these] Hunter College events, attendees are harassed, called “stupid,” “a loser,” and “fucking misogynist,” and threatened with forced removal when they ask clarifying questions such as “is rape resistance?” ​​

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In a mirror image of what is described above, when Hunter College administrators invited a Rabbi to be a part of a discussion “in an attempt to model dialogue, discourse and civil disagreement,” students and faculty interrupted the rabbi with rally chants and accusations of being “a loser,” “a racist, irrelevant, an apologist for genocide, without the right to be there,” and the "head of the Faculty Senate at Hunter College heckled [him] for not asking a notecard question accusing Israel of massacring its own people on October 7." In the end, one audience member ran onto the stage and grabbed the microphone from the Rabbi’s hand, prompting security to escort the Rabbi out of the room for his safety.   Hunter College Interim President Anne Kirschner and Dean John Rose were both present during the fiasco and instead of taking measures to disrupt [interrupt/put a stop to] the blatantly antisemitic conduct and reigning in the unhinged behavior from participants, they did nothing to stop it.​

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At Hunter College, President Dr. Nancy Cantor, and Provost Dr. Manoj Pardasani hosted a “Civil Discourse and Intellectual Dialogue" series featuring speakers like Palestinian-American author Susan Muaddi Darraj who make [made] inappropriate comparisons to the Holocaust, erroneously claim [claimed] that Jesus is from Palestine, slander [slandered] Israel as intentionally killing "poets, illustrators, artists, creatives," and mischaracterize [d] the IHRA definition of antisemitism as being used to weaponize antisemitism. In contrast, a Rabbi invited to one of these events, was instructed not to speak on the topic of the ongoing intimidation, threats, and harassment that Jewish community members at Hunter College are facing.

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University administrators repeatedly censor or obstruct Jewish student [and faculty, or remove student] programming and events celebrating Jewish holidays, including in November 2023, when Hunter College rejected a request by several Jewish groups to display two electric Hanukkah menorahs. Displaying a menorah has been a longstanding tradition on campus for over a decade. The rejection, accompanied by a dismissive legal citation from Dean Rose that “the caselaw does not obligate the government to allow the display of a menorah,” left many students feeling isolated and unwelcome. In stark contrast, Muslim students and faculty were granted permission to host a large-scale Ramadan celebration on the same campus just months later. This double standard is not exclusive to Hunter College as similar occurrences have been reported on numerous CUNY campuses. At Brooklyn College, student government officials advised Jewish students not to play the song "Am Yisrael Chai" or display Israeli flags during a Sukkot celebration mere days after a “Gaza Day” event prominently featured Palestinian flags without restriction. At Baruch College, an attempt to celebrate Rosh Hashanah was initially blocked over alleged safety concerns and was only allowed to proceed after public outcry. Events marking Yom HaZikaron (Israel's Memorial & Remembrance Day) and Israel’s Independence Day were similarly canceled or restricted at Baruch and Kingsborough Community College. Taken together, these incidents reflect a troubling pattern in which Jewish students are consistently made to suppress [minimize] their visibility and effectively hide their identity, while other campus groups [other groups on campus] are free to express political[?] and religious affiliations without similar scrutiny or obstruction.

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It causes one to wonder whether you, Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, are acquainted with your administrators, faculty, and students when at the November 25, 2024, NY City Council hearing, you responded to Councilwoman Inna Vernikov that the way to deal with the issue of intimidation and harassment of Jewish students on CUNY campuses is simply with [by] "constructive dialogue." One may ask how constructive dialogue is expected to occur [happen] when only[?] Jews, Israelis, and Zionists are vilified, dehumanized, forced to conceal their identity and harassed at campus events?​ In the words of [As...puts it] CUNY Brooklyn College's Students for Justice in Palestine: “Fuck your politics of civility.”

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At Hunter College, both the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) and the Student Union organization have taken a very public stance against Israel. [maybe here I can footnote the CUNY Law School, the PSC Resolution, etc]​​ The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) President has proudly stated, “We’re [the USG], of course we support the BDS Movement: Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions," and has made explicit demands for the university to do the same. ​The Student Union organization, which was founded “to organize and mobilize around issues that matter to students and to keep students safe,” has as their welcome message: "BOYCOTT 'ISRAEL,'" "DISCLOSE," "DIVEST," "DEATH TO IMPERIALISM,” and "FUCK THE COPS," while in a recent 'zine (dedicated almost entirely to anti-Israel “issues”) they advise students to "make cops feel unwelcome wherever you see them." They endorsed the CUNY Encampments, which amounted to over $3 Million in damages and security costs,  demanded that Hunter College uphold the illegal BDS Movement, called for participation in protests that demanded “PIGS OFF CAMPUS NOW,” promoted the Nation-wide anti-Israel WEEK OF RAGE at Hunter College, and co-opt student club spaces and the new $3 Million Student Union room to engage in anti-Israel activities and propagate antisemitic rhetoric.

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The new $3 Million state-of-the-art Student Union room - funded by student activity fees, the Hunter College Foundation, CUNY, and the New York City Council - has been used to display anti-Israel propaganda and platform anti-Israel, pro-BDS speakers. Two such “cultural” events (one specifically titled “Palestinian Cultural Night: A NIGHT OF RESISTANCE") glorified Yahya Sinwar, who orchestrated the October 7th terrorist attack against Israel, with signs that read “Long Live Sinwar,” circulated free copies of The New York War Crimes newspaper, glorifying the October 7th terrorist attack, and featured special guest speaker, Raja Abdulhaq, known for making deeply antisemitic and dangerous comments such as "Hamas is not a terrorist org," "boycotting Israel and Zionists is a moral and religious obligation," and "Normalization with Zionists…is a betrayal to Palestine, Muslims, and Islam.” Abdulhaq has glorified terrorists like Yayar Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, and during a previous Hunter College speaking engagement, he promoted and justified hate by telling students that when "people in Palestine and the rest of the Arabs say ‘We are anti-Jews,' ...they don't mean they are anti-Jews…[they] are referring to Zionists and Israelis who live in Israel” and that believing otherwise would be falling for Zionist lies and “propaganda.” Intrinsic in his argument is the belief that Israelis and Zionists are not human and are not worthy of your humanity. And this is who is being invited onto campus and what they are platforming at Hunter College.

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At Hunter College, numerous employees, staff, and students - including both former and current Hillel directors - have reported finding swastikas all over campus. This is the disturbing reality at CUNY and, like the swastikas themselves, antisemitic hate speech and hostile conduct surface everywhere on campus. [This is the disturbing reality at the university: like the swastikas themselves, antisemitic hate speech and hostile conduct surface across campus. or This is the disturbing reality: antisemitic hate speech and hostile conduct — like the swastikas themselves — surface across the campus. And should this sentence go at the end of this paragraph? Especially since it can be a good segue into the next bit?] Swastikas were even drawn on posters of Israeli hostages around campus, including in an area where students had to walk past them just to enter the main campus building. Despite complaints, it took hours before the swastikas were finally removed. As a student shared "It’s in the classrooms, it’s in the halls, it’s in the student clubs, in the programs and events, curriculum, and readings. It's everywhere!”​

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At Hunter College, there is an official advocacy and outreach group, the Palestine Solidarity Alliance, that according to the college’s website explicitly endorses the BDS movement and, on October 7th, celebrated the terrorist attack against Israel with an image of the bulldozer breaking through Israel’s border fence along with the message “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. RESISTANCE IS THE ONLY ANSWER” and to “actively support the Al-Aqsa Flood initiative” - Hamas’s name for their deadly October 7th terrorist attack in Israel.​​​​​ 

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This official Hunter College advocacy and outreach group posts threatening messages such as, “Divest or You’re Next” and organizes protests with outreach materials accusing Hillel of “indoctrinating Jewish youths,” “distorting values of Jewish community,” and “recruiting students as surveillance agents.” As one faculty member described, during one of these student- and faculty-led protests, protestors “marched through the CUNY Hunter building," “blocked entrances to elevators and escalators,” and positioned themselves in and outside of the building in ways that made it very challenging to walk through the halls and egresses. During these protests, students and faculty have demanded that “Jews on campus pick a side” and flashed images of the inverted triangle - a sign Hamas uses to mark their next target. Protesters have proudly waved the flags of terrorist groups, Hezbollah and Hamas, and held up images of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas. They have paraded signs that read "Israel is the Terrorist," "GLOBALIZE THE INTIFADA," and "Defend against Israeli terror." They held signs with violent imagery, such as ones that read “Bring The War Home” with images of assault rifles, as well as Jewish symbols dripping with blood. They chanted “Zionists burn in hell,” “we don’t want no Zionists here,” “We will never stop until…every inch of Gaza is liberated from the river to the sea,” “Take it to the classrooms...We will take any means necessary,” THERE IS ONLY ONE SOLUTION, INTIFADA REVOLUTION,” “INTIFADA, INTIFADA, LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA,” “FROM NEW YORK TO GAZA, GLOBALIZE THE INTIFADA,” “DEATH, DEATH, TO THE IDF!", and (in Arabic) "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Arab." 

 

Hunter Hillel Director, Merav Fine Braun, stated that  "...these protesters were hateful, slanderous, and defamatory” and that language used during protests “played on age-old antisemitic tropes, [that] were inappropriate for any setting, much less a college."

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Jewish community members are regularly antagonized, harassed, and intimidated by these anti-Israel protesters on school property [campus instead of property?]. Hunter College professor, Leah Garrett, stated that due to the ongoing hostility on campus [remove on campus?], she needed to assess her safety daily. She reported that "I was horrified and distraught to see that immediately [after October 7th] on the campus of Hunter, there was a pervasive and compelling and constant series of antisemitic things that I had to deal with, that my students had to deal with, that my faculty had to deal with." College administrators admitted that protesters physically intimidated students and engaged in hate speech. Among the numerous incidents, one Jewish woman was told “this is your fucking nightmare,” while another was told “get the rope, wrap it around your neck and hang it high, bitch.” A Jewish student was accosted by a protester who called him a “coward” and a “pussy” while shoving a phone in his face to record him,  another student’s Israeli flag had been ripped from his hand by a Hunter College Teaching Assistant, and a Jewish man was stabbed in the face by a protestor. Despite the Hunter Hillel Director's warning that “these protests have reached a new level of aggression,” they have persisted unchecked and [remove "unchecked and"?] without any meaningful efforts to enforce even basic codes of conduct.

 

On May 6, 2024, the situation reached a point where the administration had to close Hunter College's campus "out of an abundance of caution," and the student and faculty protestors who shouted "SHUT IT DOWN" got their wish - much to the detriment of the rest of the college community.​

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These protests are not a new or post-October 7th phenomenon. Hunter College students and faculty have been engaging in many such events, rallies, and protests throughout the years. As far back as 2003, before Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) found its way onto campus, one alum recalls Hunter College hosting an anti-Israel event titled "1 in every 5 Hunter Students gets SHOT by the Israeli Soldiers" filled with antisemitic propaganda. On November 12, 2015, Hunter College's SJP club, along with other student groups and CUNY organizations, including the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) faculty union, organized a Million Student March on the college's main campus. The event was advertised as part of a "broader, nationwide campaign for free tuition and the cancellation of student debt," but also “called for participants to oppose the school’s ‘Zionist administration.’” During the rally, speakers criticized CUNY for supporting “apartheid” in Israel while protesters chanted “Long Live the Intifada," "there Is Only One Solution: Intifada, Revolution,” and “Zionists Out of CUNY.” Members in the crowd were heard saying “Jews control the government and the banks,” that they would “make sure that [pro-Israel students did] not graduate," “we should drag the Zionist down the street," that pro-Israel students should “be happy the cops are here protecting you," “Jews are racist sons of bitches,” “I hope someone gets y’all," as well as shouts for “Jews Out of CUNY” and “Death to Jews.” Jewish students were called “settler," "racist sons of bitches,” "white supremacists," “fascists,” and “Nazis.” An independent report of the event found the conduct "disturbing" and "went beyond offensive speech and [was] tantamount to assault." Other similar rallies included mock Israeli Defense Force marches where “soldiers” were described doing a 'Hitler-walk,'" protestors shouting “You support killing children” and “baby killers” at Jewish and pro-Israel students, as well as a featured speaker who “blamed Zionists for tuition hikes.”

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- The City University of New York (CUNY) -

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The CUNY faculty actively promote and participate in these violent protests and demand that individuals who break the university’s codes of conduct or are arrested receive “full amnesty,” rather than face full accountability for their actions, even those students, faculty, and staff who have been arrested on felony charges for burglary, assault, tampering with physical evidence, criminal mischief, criminal trespassing, criminal possession of a weapon, and for their part in what amounted to at least $3 Million in damages and increased security on campus.

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CUNY Faculty and students have expressed support for individuals convicted of terrorism. They have fundraised for Rasmea Odeh, whom they praise as "a true fighter for the people," despite (or possibly because of) her involvement in two bombings in Jerusalem. They have platformed events featuring Leila Khaled, who hijacked multiple planes, including TWA Flight 840 and El Al Flight 219. Most recently, they glorified Fatima Bernawi - who attempted to bomb a movie theater in Jerusalem - by occupying the administrative floor of CUNY Law School and renaming it “Fatima’s Floor” in her honor.

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CUNY faculty have sponsored “adjunct actions,” such as the one on May 8, 2025, that took place during a Brooklyn College anti-Israel protest, which turned violent in rhetoric and conduct. There, Jewish students were called “pigs,” one Jewish student was kicked in the face, and Jewish students were forced to shelter in the Hillel building while protesters attempted to storm inside and clashes between protestors and the NYPD turned violent. [Should there be a footnote here that the PSC Union fully supports these students and faculty and have removed silent on the violence that Jewish students, faculty, and staff , as a result of these protests and actions, have had to endure? Also mention that they too support fully amnesty rather than full accountability for those responsible for violence and damage to school property and the antithesis to the university's missions and codes of conduct.] These faculty and staff members have promoted SJPs “Day of Rage” and "Week of Rage," and violently stormed campus to conduct an hours-long occupation of the main entrance and lobby including the security desk and library causing school security to panic. They hosted orientation alternatives called "DISorientation" to indoctrinate new students into the anti-Israel culture [The culture of the school is dreams of annihilating Israel. Azi] at CUNY, and led their own march from CUNY campus onto the streets of NYC chanting "Intifada, Intifada, Globalize the Intifada," which is endorsed on an official PSC Faculty Union social media account. These same faculty and staff members hand out magazines [that encourage...declare?] encouraging "direct action” asserting that it is “the best, and may be the only way, to learn what it is to be an accomplice" and declaring "we're in a fight, so be ready for confrontation and consequences" next to an image of a car lit aflame, and with slogans like “Free the land, Fuck the law,” and [along with] drawings of convicted terrorists like Rasmea Odeh.

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CUNY faculty, in a coordinated effort with staff and students, attempted to sabotage a Hillel campus climate survey designed to "assess students’ perceptions of issues surrounding inclusivity and experiences with discrimination.” The self-identified "anti-Zionists" group claimed that Hillel had ulterior motives to use the survey “as part of a broader strategy of lawfare and data manipulation.” Ironically, this group — while accusing others of manipulation — engaged in manipulation themselves by organizing this “takeover” with instructions on how to answer the questions to skew the results. Upon learning about this “takeover,” one Jewish professor said it is “[h]orrible, but not shocking. Information manipulation is right out of the Soviet handbook.” When asked about claims of fabricated feedback[?], a CUNY representative responded with seemingly little concern that among their faculty and students were those who would orchestrate such a scheme, and stated [according to one faculty member] that the data would be "adjusted accordingly.​"

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CUNY faculty regularly conduct antisemitic teach-ins such as "Demystifying BDS," "The Legacy of Palestinian Intifadas against Zionism," "Letter Writing to Prisoners: Write to the Holy Land 5," and "Eviction as Censorship," which explain "how Zionism and real estate power intersect.” These professors make claims that Israel is a "criminal, white supremacist, settler colonial state,” that the IDF "completely imitates the very tactics of the Nazis in the 1930s," dismiss allegations of rape by Hamas on October 7th as "propaganda" and "hasbara lies," and claim that Zionism "is a sick mentality, a mental illness, and... a genocidal disease.” They refer to Zionists as "Babylon swine," and encourage students to "protest their neighborhoods." One professor who conducted at least one of these teach-ins previously threatened a journalist with a machete when he attempted to ask her questions about a prior incident that she was involved in on Hunter College's campus where she cursed out and threw stuff at students. This is a far cry from the “constructive dialogue” you, Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, believe the CUNY community is capable of.

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At these CUNY Teach-Ins, students are urged to take bold action to "create a situation in which [Shai Davidai is] in Jeopardy" because "that might silence a hundred other professors if you're able to take out somebody like that and make an example [out of him]." They [Facilitators] insist students "should not be having excuses…shut your mouth and go to the protest!" and downplay legal risks: "Many people who get arrested are dismissed on the same night. It's nothing serious. It's just the NYPD illegally arresting people and eventually the attorneys get you out in no time...so there's nothing to be scared of." Students are also encouraged to build coalitions to become "too big to be messed with" by CUNY leadership. A current CUNY student - suspended for one year due to her involvement in the CUNY encampments and for harassing NYPD officers - incited fellow students to take action, asking, “How gangsta are you? How much are you willing to do?”  A CUNY professor told students to find Zionists: "You probably wait tables where they go to brunch. Find them. Go to their offices. Don't let them sleep… we could be a Trojan horse that we are inside Empire and we are here to upend it." Nerdeen Kiswani, CUNY alum and invited guest, called to "disrupt Zionist normalization on campus," stating that "faculty can and should challenge the presence of Zionists" and that "direct confrontation is warranted... and if there's going to be Zionists at a conference you're also going to, turn it into an accountability moment." She concluded, "Academic BDS ultimately is about transforming the landscape of knowledge production so that Zionism is no longer treated as an acceptable ideology within intellectual spaces. Israel must be turned into a pariah state. Zionism is a pariah ideology – it's akin to Nazism – and people may not see that now but it's something that [we will force them to see] they will be forced to see."

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When these are the professors[, students,] and invited guests leading [facilitating] the teach-ins, and these are the topics being pushed, and the rhetoric being promoted, how can we reasonably expect to end harassment, eliminate the hostile environment, or prevent it from recurring? In other words, with these professors - employees of the university - promoting hate on campus and to their students, how can the university simultaneously claim to be fulfilling its Title VI responsibilities?​​ [footnote Title VI explanation]

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[should we move the next two paragraphs down? right before "Some professors have been sounding the alarm"]

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Faculty have also admitted to using deceptive “tactics” to host events at CUNY featuring speakers who use inflammatory and antisemitic rhetoric in order "to not get the event[s] shut down.” One professor disclosed that in order to challenge administrative rules and procedures, faculty would “frame things… [to] take advantage of the liberal instinct to resist” by saying “this is the kind of stuff that Trump would do.” This professor went on to describe an instance where faculty successfully evaded administrative oversight using this ploy.

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Through their hateful rhetoric, deceptive tactics, and positions of authority, CUNY faculty not only directly endanger the Jewish community, they also manipulate their students into engaging in violent protests and dangerous conduct that compromise their present safety and jeopardize their professional futures.

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Recently, administrators announced a new (post-October 7th) Palestinian Studies cluster seeking faculty who are “familiar with the issues of settler colonialism, genocide, human rights, [and] apartheid… [with] a record of public engagement and community action.” This announcement appeared just months after a report on antisemitism, commissioned by NYS Governor Hochul, urged CUNY to "examine its faculty recruitment and hiring processes and ensure that it recruits and hires those who will encourage and promote inclusivity, constructive dialogue and tolerance." Responding to legitimate concerns that the new hire might promote antisemitism, college administrators and the university's senior leadership removed some of the terminology from the job posting, stating that “Hunter College has zero tolerance for hate of any kind. Our current and future faculty are expected to be well-versed in all scholarship so they can dissect and debunk theories, not promote them.” However, given what faculty and administrators get away with, especially in the absence of oversight or meaningful consequences from senior leadership, it is hard to trust that this will not become yet another forum for platforming vitriol against Zionists, Israelis, and the Jewish people. In fact, despite assurances [empty platitudes] by CUNY administration that the new courses will not be taught with a one-sided anti-Israel slant, a speaker at a recent faculty-led teach-in promised "that doesn't mean that the person hired to give that class isn't going to be teaching on those things."

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With CUNY being a public university, everything that has been described above is supported by our tax dollars. As things currently stand, we are being forced to foot the bill so that students can be indoctrinated into these antisemitic teachings. ​There is no shortage of examples of [the] mismanagement and misappropriation of resources and public funds by CUNY. [and we are being forced to foot the bill so that... (should it come at the end of the paragraph?)]

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What's worse is that money specifically earmarked to combat antisemitism was used to promote [subsidize] antisemitism. One of the more ironic examples of CUNY’s misuse of resources and misappropriation of public funds is . Despite a CUNY spokesperson's assurance that "new [Anti-Hate Initiative] funding from the city [council] will advance CUNY’s commitment to building campuses defined by tolerance and respect," the university spent at least a portion of the $500,000 Anti-Hate Initiative funding - specifically earmarked for combating antisemitism - to sponsor an antisemitic program titled "Race and the Question of Palestine.” The program, ironically hosted by the university’s Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity, featured three speakers - Sophia Azeb, Abigail B. Bakan, and Marc Lamont Hill - all of whom have a long history of espousing and endorsing extremely problematic and antisemitic rhetoric. Sophia Azeb, who on October 7, 2023, tweeted “we will return,” took this opportunity to endorse “CUNY for Palestine’s current boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign" and called on CUNY administrators to join the BDS movement.

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One of the more ironic examples of CUNY’s misuse of resources, is their misappropriation of public funds. Despite a CUNY spokesperson's assurance that "new [Anti-Hate Initiative] funding from the city [council] will advance CUNY’s commitment to building campuses defined by tolerance and respect," the university spent at least a portion of the $500,000 Anti-Hate Initiative funding - specifically earmarked for combating antisemitism - to sponsor an antisemitic program titled "Race and the Question of Palestine.” The program, ironically hosted by the university’s Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity, featured three speakers - Sophia Azeb, Abigail B. Bakan, and Marc Lamont Hill - all of whom have a long history of espousing and endorsing extremely problematic and antisemitic rhetoric. Sophia Azeb, who on October 7, 2023, tweeted “we will return,” took this opportunity to endorse “CUNY for Palestine’s current boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign" and called on CUNY administrators to join the BDS movement.

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During the program, Abigail B. Bakan misled students by claiming that the IHRA Definition of antisemitism weaponizes antisemitism, that "the present premise of Zionism is that Jews can only live in peace… away from non-jews" and that Zionism is the "articulated pessimism of the impossibility of solidarity with and for Jews anywhere in the world at any time.” Bakan also stated that Israel is an “apartheid state…founded as a colonizing project... not a state of all its citizens" and claimed that Jews have been ethnically cleansing and displacing Palestinians for 77 years.

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[after being fired from cnn, footnote or hyperlink] CUNY Professor Marc Lamont Hill previously told a room full of CUNY students and faculty that “framing October 7th as an act of war” undermines “the legitimacy of Palestinian resistance,” and urged that “rather than thinking of 10/7 as an act of war… [to] think about it as a moment of colonial resistance.” Referring to the innocent civilians murdered by Hamas on October 7th, he also questioned, “What constitutes innocence?” and “Who is a civilian?” During this so-called “anti-hate initiative” panel discussion, CUNY Professor Marc Lamont Hill continued spreading antisemitic rhetoric [talking points?lies?], perpetuating the falsehood that Zionism is a form of white supremacy and a colonial project, and claiming that Israel intentionally kills professors and students.

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Despite the straightforward language provided by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division that “The purpose of Title VI is simple: to ensure that public funds are not spent in a way that encourages, subsidizes, or results in discrimination,” CUNY faculty and administrators have been turning spaces intended to foster community into echo chambers of hate and, more often than not, they have succeeded. The following are some additional examples to highlight the pervasiveness and severity of the problem:

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• Lehman College's Center for the Humanities “Engagement, Equity, and Antiracism Conference” endeavored to host a panel discussion titled "Globalize the Intifada! Mapping Struggles for Palestine from the Streets to Our Classrooms."

• The Borough of Manhattan Community College's (BMCC) Social Justice and Equity Centers exhibited a “Visual Timeline of Occupied Palestinian Land” painting Jews in Israel as “settler colonialists" and blaming Israel for the deadly second intifada, as well as featured an anti-Israel speaker who claimed that the "Jewish state relies on the consistent displacement of Palestinians, with Zionism serving as a shallow justification for extermination."

• The Center for Ethnic, Racial and Religious Understanding (CERRU) at Queens College hosted a student panel reflecting on their Middle East trip sponsored by the Ibrahim and Queens College Student Leadership Program. One student panelist described meeting “Palestinian resistance freedom fighters,” including a recently released prisoner jailed for "organizing youth to throw stones" at Jewish Israelis. She shared that "with our current situation - everything happening in Ferguson and New York with injustice killings, that I'm very passionate about - that moment of new ways that some Palestinian freedom fighters find to resist oppression has really resonated with me."

• During a Queens College event in October 2023 meant “to build bridges” between the Muslim and Jewish communities post-October 7th - where an imam and a rabbi were invited to speak about their interfaith partnership - students compared Israelis to Nazis and denied that Hamas targeted civilians on October 7th, instead blaming Israel for the deaths. Later, Muslim students targeted one of the guests, Imam Shamsi Ali, for partnering with Rabbi Marc Schneier, questioning his motives and accusing him of being a Zionist: "Who told you to come here? Which Muslim? How much did they pay you?” "One student said, 'Say you’re a Zionist. You’re not welcome,' and then led the room in several chants of 'Allahu akbar'" (“God is the greatest” in Arabic).

• The Center for Puerto Rican Studies (Centro) at Hunter College is currently holding an exhibit titled The Diasporic College: Puerto Rico and the Survival of a People, which prominently features a large tapestry depicting anti-Israel protesters carrying signs that read "Palestine Yes - Racist Israel No,” "Down with Zionist Occupation.”

• Brooklyn College’s Anthropology Club, which describes itself as “an all-inclusive safe space,” platformed Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro to teach students “how to end Zionism.” [here can be a note about the anti-Zionist club that pledged to help students unlearn Zionism] Shapiro distorted history by claiming Jewish “Zionists hated the Jews” and compared them to Hitler. He accused Jewish Zionists of manipulating people for financial gain and urged everyone to “attack Zionism” as the best way to achieve peace. [footnote] This event is the direct result of a pledge members of the CUNY community to create programming to "unlearn Zionism.”

• The Center for Jewish Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center hosted a two-part panel discussion titled "Definitions of Antisemitism," which featured six scholars, all of whom disparaged the IHRA definition of antisemitism claiming that it is being used to silence voices and quell free speech - these claims went unchallenged by the Center’s Director and series moderator.

• The CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences at the Graduate Center also presented numerous programs disparaging the IHRA definition of antisemitism. Most recently, they hosted the program "Beyond the Settler State: Anticolonial Pasts and Futures in Palestine/Israel,” which propagated anti-Jewish rhetoric throughout the entire program, going so far as to falsely claim that the IHRA definition is responsible for fueling discrimination, persecution, and violence against Jews and has been detrimental to the fight against antisemitism world-wide.

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Some professors have been sounding the alarm on their colleagues and administrators’ egregious conduct and the detrimental impact it has had on their students, only to have been met with indifference. One professor revealed that “The faculty is the scariest entity in this struggle. The faculty are the troublemakers…the faculty sets the agenda, the faculty indoctrinates our students instead of educating them, instead of allowing them to grow.” Councilman Bob Holden (D-Queens), a CUNY alum and former professor, echoed these sentiments, suggesting this is nothing new: “[The university] should look no further than their biased curriculum, departments, and unqualified radical faculty.” As a result, “[the students are] not just indoctrinated. They’re bamboozled, bombarded, propagandized by these faculty members who have lost their minds or worse, and who only have an agenda, only teach through bias, only teach through one perspective. Their whole goal is to minimize the opportunity for young people to grow.” Another professor shared similar criticism: “People don’t even know how to talk and think here... They don’t think about what they might want to know or say and ask questions. The intellectual level is very low... [The students] don’t know how to have a reasoned discussion based on facts, where you have some respect for the other side.”

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It’s no wonder that across CUNY’s 25 campuses, students — shaped by the rhetoric, ideology, and conduct of their professors and classmates — have echoed those views by immediately praising the October 7th Hamas terror attack as an “act of resistance,” celebrating it as the moment “Palestinians broke through their prison walls,” accusing “Israel of massacring its own people on October 7,” and mocking Jewish Israeli students mourning friends who were murdered or taken hostage on 10/7. Some have gone so far as to physically block entrances to campus Hillel centers and deface college property with the words "October 7th Forever," “You better start hiding, Jews,” “Israelis, I am coming after you. [signed by] Hitler 2,” and “Hitler, please come back. Teach Jews a lesson."

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They declare that Israel is “an apartheid state where literally only white Jewish people have rights,” claim that the “[Israel Defense Forces] have offices in wider CUNY systems,” and allege that anti-Israel protesters are being mistreated because newly appointed NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch is Jewish. Further accusations include that “the university is taking orders from non-university-affiliated, IOF-trained external institutions,” and that Governor Kathy Hochul is a “Nazi,” “Fascist,” “BLOODTHIRSTY ZIONIST,” “War Criminal,” and “Killer” for expressing concerns about antisemitism at CUNY.

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The hostility has grown to such an extent that students feel justified in doxxing and threatening Jewish students, faculty, and staff. They have circulated a “master list” of professors, highlighting the only Israeli professor in a program as a “ZIONIST” to warn others against enrolling in her class. One Jewish professor had her photo posted online and, as a result, received emails claiming Satanists are “more moral than [Jews].”

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More explicitly threatening behavior has also surfaced. Students have been heard exclaiming, “we need Hitler again” and “WE’RE ALL HAMAS.” Others have followed Jewish students off campus, shouting threatening and harassing messages such as, “you ain’t going home tonight” and “where’s [hostage] Hersh Goldberg-Polin, you ugly ass bitch.”​​

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There have also been multiple incidents involving students in which hateful rhetoric turned violent. In one case, a CUNY student and two of his friends physically assaulted and choked numerous Jewish men after they refused to repeat the slogan 'Free Palestine,' while also yelling violent threats such as "Kill you Jews.” In another incident, a Jewish student was assaulted on campus — punched multiple times in the face and stomach — by an assailant who shouted "I don’t like white boys. Leave the school, you Jew.” In a third case, a Jewish student wearing an Israeli flag patch was called a “Zionist pig” and had a water bottle thrown at him. Another incident involved a CUNY student tearing down hostage posters and exclaiming “Jews are all shit and need to die" before beating a Jewish man with an umbrella. More recently, Hillel staff have been threatened and assaulted, and on Friday, August 8, 2025, a CUNY student was arrested for posting a call to violence on social media urging her followers to attack a Jewish High School [located on CUNY's Kingsborough Community College campus].

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While many lament the abysmal lack of ethical conduct on the part of CUNY faculty, there are those who stress the role and responsibility of the administration and senior leadership. One administrator confessed that “[t]he problem comes from senior leadership.” A concerned professor affirms this: “I don’t think this is a question of [senior leadership] understanding or not understanding the gravity of a problem. I think they get it. I don't think they have a blind eye. I think they don't want to change." A former CUNY Board of Trustees member had this to say about CUNY administrators and senior leadership: “They’ve allowed this to go on with such intensity for so long… the disease is so metastatic at CUNY.” As a group of concerned professors reported, “CUNY has a problem that isn’t merely rampant… [it] is also systemic.” Perhaps Silberman’s Director of Social Justice and Equity Education, Willie Tolliver, was not only speaking about the Silberman School of Social Work, but about the entire CUNY system when he said that he “will be the first to admit that we [the administration] have not done enough” and that the school is “woefully lacking in terms of our capacity to sustain efforts [to address antisemitism].”

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One is left wondering where you are, Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. You rarely attend requested meetings. One professor stated that he hopes "...at some point, the Chancellor will respond to our letters," and that his colleagues have “been trying to engage with [senior leadership] and they haven't picked that up. And we need an immediate meeting with the Chancellor.” When your presence was requested at a NY City Council meeting scheduled specifically to accommodate your availability, you announced last minute that you would not attend. You then failed to attend a second NY City Council meeting and instead sent three representatives who, according to those present, “couldn’t answer a single question."​ Councilmember Inna Vernikov described this move as "cowardly," "unacceptable," "an insult to the Jewish community," and "that the testimony at the June [2022] hearing demonstrates that CUNY lacks an understanding of antisemitism and 'has not adequately addressed this widespread problem.'" 

On the rare occasion that you do attend meetings, your contributions are astonishingly bereft of any substance. When you met with Jewish students from Baruch College - who were justifiably concerned about antisemitism after being followed off campus and harassed and threatened by other Baruch students - you failed to address their concerns. "Instead of trying to frame [the meeting] around antisemitism and the issues we're dealing with on campus," one student said, "[you] tried to shy away from that and talked about what CUNY can do to help us with our careers. Now I'm very interested in my career but I can't focus on my career when I have to focus on fighting antisemitism on my campus."

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During the November 25, 2024, NY City Council Committee on Higher Education hearing, which you finally attended, [DuringaNY...hearing,whichyoufinally,on...] you failed to provide a single direct answer to a series of questions regarding Judge Johnathan Lipman’s damning report on the state of antisemitism at CUNY. This prompted Councilmember Eric Dinowitz to point out that your answers sounded like "excuses" and Councilmember Julie Menin to say “I think it is outrageous that when we’re having this hearing on such an important topic, that the most rudimentary questions you’ve been unable to answer... It’s just wholly unsatisfactory. It’s not enough just to show up. I mean, we really need – the whole point of today is to get answers and to have actionable items.”

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During the 2024 NY City Council hearing, it was exposed that for two years, despite the urgent need for an effective system to report harassment, discrimination, and retaliation, you sat on a flawed reporting system (known as "the Portal") that Judge Lippman described as a “black box,” where students do “not receive any acknowledgment that their complaint has been received, nor… status updates regarding progress of an investigation.” Indeed, in Judge Lippman’s report, the system was described as “rapidly designed,” and that it “may cause more harm than good,” noting it “creates uncertainty and anxiety,” “competes with certain individual schools’ reporting procedures,” and is ultimately “ineffective,” “unacceptable,” and “needs to be completely overhauled.” A March 2023 report concluded the system “was a farcical smokescreen,” stating it merely replicated the previous manual process online and “does nothing to, in any way, combat any form of antisemitism.” Councilmember Eric Dinowitz highlighted ongoing student confusion and frustration about where and how to report harassment and discrimination using the Portal, saying, “there are still many issues,” and that many students no longer make reports due to a lack of response. Questioning your inaction, Councilmember Menin asked, “Why on earth when there is a serious crisis around antisemitism... wouldn’t you… implement a new Portal [for reporting antisemitism]?” Only after pressure from these Councilmembers did you take even the most basic step to begin to remedy the problems. It has been almost three years since the Portal was launched and it remains unclear whether or not any of these issues have been corrected.

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