STUDENTS SUE COOPER UNION ON ANTISEMITISM
Ten Jewish students at Cooper Union, who say they were forced to shelter in a school library during a tense protest over the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, are suing the college for a failure to address allegations of campus antisemitism, they announced Wednesday.
The lawsuit, filed by the Lawfare Project and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP in Manhattan Federal Court, alleges that administrators permitted anti-Jewish hate to fester after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, leading to a “terrifying incident for Jewish students.”
“Cooper Union has failed to adequately protect not just our clients but other Jewish students on campus in the face of pro-Hamas hate,” said Brooke Goldstein, founder and executive director of the Lawfare Project, a pro bono Jewish civil rights organization. “No student should be subjected to intimidation, fear or hatred when pursuing an education.”
The lawsuit said the group of Orthodox students, who are all studying engineering, were “merely looking for a place to gather quietly, away from the jarring demonstration” on Oct. 25.
“Instead, they soon found themselves trapped inside the school library as the mob chanting hateful slogans attempted to enter, rattling the library doors and then pounding on the floor-to-ceiling windows, through which the mob could see the Jewish plaintiffs in Orthodox Jewish dress,” including yarmulkes and tzitzit.
A Cooper Union spokeswoman declined to comment on pending litigation.
After the demonstration, police who were present in plainclothes disputed that doors were barricaded and said there was no active criminal investigation into the episode. Student protesters later told The New York Times that they did not know who was inside when they approached the library or that they were Jewish.
According to the complaint, the protesters last fall pushed by security guards, including at last one who warned “you’re going to get arrested.”
As the group made their way through the building, plaintiffs said, an administrator locked the library doors as student protesters shouted, “Let us in.” The administrator and a librarian suggested the Jewish students relocate to a windowless area of the library or leave through a back exit, but students were eventually able to leave through the front door, they said.
Plaintiffs said the incident lasted 20 minutes. Video of the incident circulated online for weeks — sparking national media coverage, a federal investigation and even a talking point during a Republican presidential debate.
“The scene, which was publicized globally on television and social media, became a symbol of virulent antisemitism on college campuses,” read the complaint.
The Jewish students blamed a campus culture that emboldened the protesters, including a perceived failure to forcefully condemn Hamas’ attacks. Some Cooper Union professors canceled classes to promote the protest, and an art teacher encouraged students to draw pictures of the demonstration, they said.
The fallout has continued throughout this school year. The lawsuit claims that Cooper Union President Laura Sparks had a security guard stationed in front of her office for the remainder of the fall semester, and that a Dec. 5 letter with 350 signatories, including alumni and professors, expressed “solidarity” with the protesters.
The Jewish students, who say they have continued to feel unsafe on campus, miss classes and avoid the library, alleged Cooper Union could have addressed the “hostile” environment by enforcing its own school policies. Administrators’ failure to do so, they say, violated their civil rights and amounted to a breach of contract.
“The school’s course of action has been to bury its head in the sand, attempting to evade its legal obligations and commitments to its students,” the plaintiffs allege.