MID-HUDSON – Moshe Orange is a vocal and forceful critic of antisemitism and like many other Jewish leaders is applauding President Donald Trump for pulling $400 million from Columbia University.
Trump last week canceled grants and contracts for what the administration described as the Ivy League school’s failure to prevent antisemitism on campus. Columbia is among a handful of colleges that have come under new federal antisemitism investigations.
“I think it serves them right,” said Orange, a Rockland County resident, who served as a reservist in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). “Columbia University is an educational institution, not a political institution. If they want to be a political institution, they don’t deserve federal funding. What President Trump did was right and other colleges should take notice because there should be zero tolerance for antisemitism.”
Mark Grunblatt, president of the Ulster County Jewish Federation, disagreed with Orange and said “cutting grant funding to Columbia University does not make Jewish students safer on campus.” He has two children who are Columbia graduates.
“I faced death threats and neo-Nazi chants during Kingston’s debates on a resolution regarding Gaza last summer,” Grunblatt added. “The overlap between old and new hate was a shock. I can empathize with the Jewish students’ fears.”
However, Grunblatt feels that cutting grant funds will harm research and education, and fails to address any lingering anti-Semitic trends at Columbia and other colleges.
Ari Rosenblum, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation and Foundation of Rockland County, said that some of the alleged anti-Semitic offenses at Columbia are violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. Violations include denying services, benefits, or housing, or treating people differently.
Rosenblum said that President Trump investigated anti-Semitic Title VI claims at U.S. universities during his first term and President Joe Biden filed suit. Other colleges currently under investigations for antisemitism include the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University and Portland State University.
In August, Columbia’s task force on anti-Semitism reported that Jewish and Israeli students at Columbia were ostracized from student groups, humiliated in classrooms, and subjected to verbal abuse as pro-Palestinian demonstrations were staged on the New York City campus last year.
“This is not a political enforcement, this the appropriate way to enforce Title VI,” Rosenblum said. “We fully support any federal mandate to protect Jewish students from harassment and antisemitism. They shouldn’t be verbally abused, or even worse, subjected to violence when going to class. We would expect any president to protect Jewish students or any students that are being harassed on campus.”
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