Columbia tops conservative group’s list of colleges with ‘worst anti-Semitic activity’

Gabe Friedman

NEW YORK (JTA) — Columbia University had the “worst anti-Semitic activity” of any college campus in America in 2014, according to a list prepared by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a conservative think tank.

The Southern California center launched a campaign to combat the “rapidly growing anti-Semitism” on U.S. campuses with its list of the 10 having the most anti-Semitic activity last year.

The campaign, titled “Jew Hatred on Campus,” will aim to “withdraw campus privileges” of student groups that the center says “support or are associated with known terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah,” according to a statement issued Sunday by the center.

In the statement, Columbia was cited as having “some of the most well-known anti-Semitic professors in the nation” and a “highly active chapter” of Students for Justice in Palestine, which “recently brought BDS founder Omar Barghouti and disgraced anti-Semitic professor Steven Salaita to campus.” Salaita lost a tenured professorship at the University of Illinois because he made inflammatory statements against Israel.

Another Ivy League school, Cornell, followed Columbia on the center’s list. Three California schools — San Diego State (6), San Francisco State (7) and UCLA (9) — were included. The others are George Mason (3); Loyola of Chicago (4); Portland State (5); Temple (9); and Vassar (10).

On Monday, a study released by the Louis D. Brandeis Center and Trinity College found that over half of American college students have witnessed or experienced an anti-Semitic incident.

The David Horowitz Freedom Center, formerly called the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, was established in 1988 by the political activist.

In 2011, Horowitz was criticized by pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups at the University of California, Santa Barbara, for presenting a speech on campus titled “Infantile Disorders at UCSB: Why the Muslim Students Association is Afraid of David Horowitz.”