Shipman Just Bestowed Columbia’s Highest Academic Honor on a BDS-Supporting Professor of African Studies Who Accused Israel of Inhumane Discrimination and Violence Since 1948
Morton A. Klein, National President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), and the ZOA demand the immediate resignation of Columbia University’s Acting President, Claire Shipman, because of her Jew-hatred. Shipman just bestowed the university’s highest academic honor on Farah Griffin, a fervent BDS-supporting professor of African Diaspora Studies. Shipman also urged the resignation of a Jewish member from the Columbia Board, calling her a “mole.” Shipman sent despicable text messages that downplay, mock, and clearly indicate her continuing toleration of antisemitism on campus.
These messages recently came to light when House Committee on Education and Workforce Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) and House Republican Leadership Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) wrote to Columbia University seeking clarity regarding Acting President Shipman’s multiple disgraceful messages, including:
- Shipman’s statement that fear of antisemitism is not necessarily rational: In October 2023, during major outbreaks of antisemitism at Columbia, Shipman, then co-chair of Columbia’s board of trustees, wrote to Minouche Shafik, then Columbia’s president, that “people are really frustrated and scared about antisemitism on our campus and they feel somehow betrayed by it, which is not necessarily a rational feeling, but it’s deep and it is quite threatening.”
- Shipman’s denigration of congressional investigation: On December 28, 2023, Shipman wrote messages describing the congressional investigations into Jew-hatred on college campuses as “Capitol Hill nonsense.”
- Shipman’s call for more events with Jew-hating Columbia professor Khalidi, and denigration of those who would be harmed by this: Also on December 28, 2023, Shipman called for more campus events with antisemitic professor Rashid Khalidi, who demanded Israel be treated as a pariah, even though such Khalidi events “won’t be popular in some groups [meaning Jews].” Khalidi calls for treating Israel as a pariah; was a spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization terrorist group; calls Palestinian Arab terrorists who murder Jews “Palestinian resistance fighters”; called “resistance” [terrorism] to Israel “legitimate”; falsely blamed Israeli “occupation” and “oppression” for Hamas’ and Gazan civilians’ October 7, 2023 massacres of innocent Jews; in November 2023, accused Israel of “mass murder and ethnic cleansing”; supports antisemitic BDS; participated in the pro-Hamas Columbia encampment; justifies chants calling for Israel’s violent elimination; and much more.
- Shipman’s call for adding Arab board member in violation of Title VI, shortly after the October 7 massacre: On January 17, 2024, Shipman wrote in a message to the Columbia board of trustee’s vice chair, “We need to get somebody from the middle east [sic] or who is Arab on our board. Quickly I think. Somehow.” Chairman Walberg’s letter noted that Shipman’s statement implicated Title VI concerns and raised “troubling questions regarding Columbia’s priorities just months after the October 7th attack, which was the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”
- Shipman’s multiple attacks on Jewish board member who spoke out against antisemitism: On January 25, 2024, Shipman stated that Shoshana Shendelman, a Jewish board member who frequently spoke out against campus antisemitism, was “extraordinarily unhelpful.” Shipman also said, “I just don’t think she [Shendelman] should be on the board.” In an exchange on April 22, 2024, Shipman agreed with a colleague who suggested Shendelman was a “mole” and a “fox in the henhouse.” Shipman also stated that she was “so, so tired” of Shendelman.
As the Congressional Committee Chair’s letter noted: “These exchanges raise the question of why you appeared to be in favor of removing one of the board’s most outspoken Jewish advocates at a time when Columbia students were facing a shocking level of fear and hostility.”
Shipman’s messages were found during the House of Representatives Education and Workforce Committee’s ongoing investigation “as to whether there was or is a hostile environment against Jewish students on Columbia’s campus and whether the university is fulfilling its obligation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI) to end any harassment, eliminate any hostile environment and its effects, and prevent any harassment from recurring.”
The Congressional Committee’s letter noted that Columbia University has compiled a horrific record of allowing and excusing rampant antisemitism and violence on its campus:
Throughout the Congressional Committee’s investigation, antisemitic harassment has continued at Columbia. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has launched three separate investigations into antisemitic discrimination on campus. In May, the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Education found that Columbia had acted with deliberate indifference toward the severe and pervasive harassment faced by Jewish students at the university. Columbia officials have also repeatedly made shameful statements about the plight of Jewish students on campus, raising questions about their willingness or ability to comply with Title VI.
There have been numerous antisemitic and anti-Israel-related assaults, vandalizations, trespasses, and illegal intimidations on the Columbia University campus, some of them led by a dangerous radical anti-Israel, Jew-hating Muslim non-citizen named Mahmoud Khalil. Columbia has done little to stem these illegal actions against Jews.
Additionally, the Washington Free Beacon recently stated that Shipman’s Columbia U just bestowed its ”highest academic distinction” to a fervent and relentless BDS-supporting professor of African Diaspora Studies, Farah Griffin, naming this Jew-hating, Israel-bashing radical a “University Professor” and an “exceptional scholar of rare breadth and clarity” known for “the depth of her contributions to Columbia’s intellectual life.” In 2002, Griffin signed a divestment petition that targets Israel, prompting Columbia then President Lee Bollinger to condemn her. In 2016, Griffin accused Israel of “inhumane segregation and systemic forms of discrimination” and demanded Columbia “take a moral stance against Israel’s violence” by divesting “from corporations that supply, perpetuate and profit from a system that has subjugated Palestinian Arab people for over 68 years” (since 1948). Photographs also seem to show Griffin as a protest marshal at the illegal encampments at Columbia.
ZOA President Morton A. Klein said, “Acting President Claire Shipman is no longer fit to preside at Columbia University. Her messages are appalling and unacceptable. Columbia must no longer tolerate her shocking, despicable actions. She and her predecessors have allowed a once great university to descend into a violent hotbed of antisemitism and violence.
“No one should accept Shipman’s belated ‘non-apology’ yesterday, after her despicable messages came to light, in which Shipman blamed her long string of unacceptable statements on ‘a moment of frustration and stress.’ That’s clearly no excuse for Shipman working to make the situation worse for Jewish students on multiple occasions.
“ZOA demands that Acting President Shipman immediately submit her resignation and be replaced by an objective and unbiased president who will actually defend the rights of Jewish and other pro-Israel students and faculty at Columbia University, as required by Title VI. ZOA also asks the Trump administration to continue to hold Columbia University accountable for its up-to-now blatant tolerance of antisemitic and violent misconduct.”