Minouche Shafik resigned today. Her terrible handling of the protests at Columbia University, and her craven capitulation to hardline Israel supporters in the US congress infuriated both students and faculty.
Her resignation, effective immediately, was unexpected, with the university’s fall semester just weeks from beginning. It comes on the heels of two other Ivy League presidents’ resignations in the past year.
Immediately after the news, reports of pro-Palestinian protesters celebrating near the university began appearing on X as some members of the Columbia community voiced their support for the change of leadership.
…Shafik, whose tenure began in July 2023 and made her the first woman to head the prestigious university in New York City, appeared before Congress in April, in highly publicized hearings regarding allegations of on-campus antisemitism. At about the same time, her decision to call the New York police department on to campus, in response to student protests, drew the ire of students and faculty.
I’ve seen data that younger Jews are far less supportive of Israel than older Jews. There’s a good chance that many of those “antisemitic” protesters at Columbia were Jewish. My father was minister of a Unitarian Universalist church in a very Jewish area. He and the rabbis worked together on numerous issues, but the one issue they did not discuss was Israel.