Columbia Prof Shai Davidai: University President “Has to Go”

Shai Davidai, a Jewish Israeli assistant professor of management at the Columbia University Business School, told the Journal in an exclusive interview that it is time for Columbia President Minouche Shafik to leave her position over the university’s failure to adequately address antisemitism on campus.

Davidai spoke to the Journal on Saturday following the “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): Challenges and Opportunities” session he co-led during the StandWithUs Israel in Focus International Conference at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport hotel. The bespectacled, lanky professor went viral on social media in October after he excoriated Shafik for being a “coward” in failing to denounce “pro-terror student organizations” on campus. Davidai, who describes himself as a “left-leaning liberal,” has since become an outspoken figure in fighting against antisemitism and terror on campus.

“Up until a few weeks ago, I was very, very optimistic or naïve that the current administration will step up and do something,” Davidai told the Journal. “They haven’t done anything for five months. They haven’t commented on two lawsuits and a congressional investigation. It’s clear they don’t want to — I thought that they can’t, they just don’t want. So, I think the president has to go. The provost is now changing, so hopefully we’ll get a better one. The entire board of trustees needs to go. I say: step up or step away.”

Since that October video went viral, “life has been very difficult,” Davidai said. “When I go into the office, almost no one speaks with me. Even if they agree with what I’m doing, it’s like a hot potato, they don’t want to touch it … it’s been very isolating.” He also accused the university of “trying to silence me”; Davidai couldn’t comment on some of the specifics, but he did say that “informally I’ve had several people from the administration come and try to dissuade me from speaking up … They see the fact that donors are pulling out money, that students don’t want to register for school, as if it’s something that has to do with me rather than the problem,” he alleged. “I keep telling them, ‘I am pointing out the problem and you are cutting off the finger rather than dealing with the problem.’”

And online, “I get a lot of hate mail,” Davidai claimed. “I get a lot of hatred remarks, people have published my address … my reputation has been dragged through the mud. And at the same time, you know you’re doing something right if people are attacking your character rather than the arguments.”

Despite these challenges, it has also “been a very meaningful time” for Davidai. “I come to events like this, and see how many Jewish and Zionist students and faculty are really suffering and dealing with all these issues,” he said. “Just being able to add one more voice to the fight has been very helpful.”

Davidai thinks his argument “is very simple”: No antisemitism on campus, no support for terror on campus, and hold administrations accountable for not taking action on these fronts. “Those are basically the things that I’ve been saying, and they are irrefutable,” the Columbia professor said.

How well has Columbia addressed antisemitism since Davidai started speaking out? “Poorly,” Davidai told the Journal. “They have not done anything of substance.” The university did launch a task force to combat antisemitism, and while Davidai respects what the task force is doing, “they haven’t created any actionable plan yet.” On Monday, the task force released a report highlighting antisemitism at Columbia — particularly during protests — and a series of recommendations to better regulate protests; Shafik said in a statement she welcomed the task force’s report. But Davidai told The Times of Israel that the report deals “with the symptom and not the root cause” and that the university isn’t enforcing its current policies.

“The university has allowed more and more of these pro-Hamas protests to happen on campus, even when they are unauthorized, even when they go against the rules of the university,” Davidai told the Journal. The university has suspended the campus Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapters, but have reportedly continued to hold protests on campus.

“They have been holding on average a protest a week, sometimes two or three protests a week,” he continued. “In those protests they use chants that incite violence, which the university has said has gone against the code of the school and the university knows exactly who the organizers are. They know the people shouting at the bullhorns. They have faculty showing up to these unauthorized protests and the university has said nothing about this. It’s just horrific, and every day the bar gets lowered.”

He mentioned a recent article that reported there is a visiting professor at the university’s Middle Eastern Institute who “identifies with Hamas.” “He has called for not just an armed resistance in Israel but armed resistance in the U.S. to, in his words, to ‘liberate the armed turtle island,’” Davidai said, explaining that “turtle island” is a reference to the U.S. and Canada. “Those are the kinds of professors that are at the university. And again, we have free speech … but that doesn’t mean that the university can’t come out and condemn.”

Davidai urged the university to call out the antisemites and those breaking the rules by name and make it clear that such people do not reflect the views of the university. “As long as the university doesn’t do that, they’re basically saying, ‘these people are speaking for our university,’” he said.

When Students Supporting Israel held a rally on campus, it was peaceful, all the rules were followed and rallygoers waved American flags in addition to Israeli flags, Davidai said. “When you look at the pro-Hamas rally, there was just Palestinian flags and Houthi flags … you get a sense of the kind of people you’re dealing with.”

Asked how Jewish students are feeling about the climate campus, Davidai replied that some “feel extremely uncomfortable walking around with their yarmulke” since “we had a student attacked for wearing a yarmulke.” Others are uncomfortable in class because their classmates will accuse them of being “genocidal” as their professors stand idly by. And some students “feel like they are not getting the education they deserve,” Davidai said. “They can’t sit in the library and study when there are people chanting antisemitic chants right outside.”

At the heart of these hostile campus climates at Columbia and elsewhere is an “anti-American sentiment,” Davidai argued. “These are students that have been radicalized by extremist professors, ideologues — they are not academics, they are ideologues — that are pushing an indoctrination of anti-American sentiment. This is why they refer to the U.S. as an ‘occupied territory.’ This is why they support the Houthis who are shooting missiles at American ships. This is why they haven’t said a word about the U.S. civilians that were held hostage by Gaza. They don’t care about these values of life and liberty.”

He added that while he’s “totally fine with the idea that people are shouting to ‘Free Palestine’ in the sense that a Palestinian state will have its own self-determination — I am in support of a Palestinian state — but that shouldn’t come at the life and liberty of the Jewish people in the Israeli state. This is why it’s an issue of life and liberty. This is why you see American flags in the pro-Israel protests. This is why you see American flags in the ‘Release the Hostages’ rallies. This is why you never see even one American flag at the pro-Hamas protest and when you see them, they’re being burned down.”

Davidai also pointed out that Columbia has also been hit with two lawsuits accusing the university of failing to address antisemitism on campus and is being investigated by Congress on the matter and they refuse to comment on any of this. “It’s as if the president of the university thinks if she says nothing, this will go away,” said Davidai. “Kind of like if my child does something wrong and tries to hide it, and my son knows that just by hiding something doesn’t make it go away and we will find out.”

Overall, Davidai thinks that antisemitism has become “endemic” and “institutionalized” at Columbia.

“We need to treat this like any other prejudice,” he said. “I won’t accept anti-Black prejudice, I won’t accept sexism or any kind of racism or homophobia, I won’t accept anti-Arab sentiment and I won’t accept Islamophobia. I also won’t accept antisemitism. It’s not that big of an ask. Decent people would have already acted.” However, Davidai does “believe in second or third chances” and in his view, the university leadership still has a chance to redeem themselves with meaningful action.

He mentioned during his StandWithUs conference session that part of the solution involves universities adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Davidai added to the Journal that the solution also involves Shafik condemning Hamas, as she hasn’t mentioned the terror organization once in a public statement. He also called for “a permanent ban” of organizations that support Hamas. “Antisemitic organizations that support terror should not have a place on campus,” he said. “Very simple. And if they keep organizing, even they’re banned or suspended, the organizers should have consequences.”

Davidai has found that when he’s discussing the issue of the Israel-Hamas war and the campus climate to Americans who may not fully understand what is going on, framing it as a life and liberty issue has been “eye-opening” for them. “You’d expect this kind of ideas to come from the right, and I’m saying no, I am a complete leftist and you don’t have to agree with me on my political views, but our values are the same and our values are that we agree on the basic fundamentals on what this country stands for, what Israel stands for, what democracy stands for,” said Davidai, “and once we realize that, yes, we have our political differences, but the values are the same and that’s what we should all be fighting for.”

He added that his message for “middle America” is that “this is not Israel’s war, this is not the Jewish war, this is America’s war …  this is the war on terror, it just showed up on U.S. campuses now.”

A university spokesperson told the Journal, “As President Shafik and the administration have consistently made clear that antisemitism is antithetical to Columbia’s values. We are using every available tool to keep our community safe and that includes protecting our Jewish students from antisemitic discrimination or harassment. Maintaining a safe, civil, inclusive and respectful campus environment is always a core priority for the university administration and never more so than at present.”

This article has been updated.