Columbia University will open its global center in Tel Aviv this summer, adjunct professor Nadav Eyal announced Monday on the “Call Me Back” podcast with Dan Senor.
The center was first announced by the school in April 2023 and quickly drew dueling letters from faculty supporting and opposing the move.
“After what we saw on university campuses across the US, including, of course, at Columbia University, got a lot of traction in media and our criticism, it’s really nice to know that this is opening,” Eyal said, referring to campus pro-Palestinian protests that some said crossed into antisemitism and intimidation.
The Columbia student workers' union dropped its demand at the bargaining table Tuesday for the university to divest from Israel.
The concession by the Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers marked a sharp reversal for the group, which played a key role in the pro-Palestinian protest movement that roiled the campus during the war in Gaza.
“You start off a campaign with one thing, and then as you bargain, you have to face the realities of where you are,” union president Grant Miner told the Columbia Spectator.
End Jew Hatred, an antisemitism advocacy group founded by pro-Israel conservative activists in 2020, has launched a petition calling on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to remove Mayor Zohran Mamdani from office.
Mamdani petition follows Upper West Side stabbing attack
The petition comes one week after several New York Jewish leaders condemned the mayor’s rhetoric following a stabbing attack that left two men wounded on the Upper West Side, including a Jewish man.
“Mayor Mamdani has been made acutely aware of the public safety concerns of the Jewish community, including those about his own rhetoric,” the petition reads. “He has failed to act, failed to lower the temperature, and failed to adequately govern New Yorkers. Accordingly, we ask the Governor to commence removal proceedings for his malfeasance in office.”
In May, the group also organized a protest outside Gracie Mansion calling on Hochul to remove Mamdani from office.
Raul Morales, the man accused of stabbing a Jewish man and an Asian man on the Upper West Side last Thursday, was indicted by a grand jury Thursday.
Morales, 51, pleaded not guilty to all charges handed to him last Friday, including two counts of attempted murder as a hate crime.
The indictment will be unsealed on Sept. 22 during Morales’ next court appearance.
Police investigate racist graffiti in New York suburb
The police in Irvington, a suburb of New York City, are investigating what was described as “anti-Black, antisemitic and racist graffiti” discovered at Halsey Pond.
The discovery of the graffiti comes months after antisemitic graffiti was also discovered in the Irvington Train Station, prompting a communal rally.
“There is no place in our community for antisemitism, racism, hate, or any act that seeks to divide us,” the mayor, board of trustees, and police chief said in a statement. “We are a community built on respect, inclusion, and mutual understanding, and we will not allow acts of hate to define who we are.”