‘Jewish lives matter?’
CUNY big snubs vics of anti-Semitism
Students and professors at New York City’s public colleges testified Thursday that they have been targeted over their Jewish faith, telling lawmakers that the campuses of CUNY and other schools are a hotbed of anti-Semitism.
CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez, however, was a no-show for the long-awaited hearing held by the City Council Committee on Higher Education — and his refusal to testify didn’t go unnoticed.
“Last night, in a very cowardly fashion, the chancellor said he won’t appear. Instead he sent a lawyer to represent him. What a sham. What an insult to the Jewish community of New York,” said Brooklyn Councilwoman Inna Vernikov.
“When it comes to Jews, do Jewish lives matter?!” fumed Vernikov, a Ukrainian-born Jew, who is the ranking Republican on the council’s Education Committee.
Meanwhile, the chancellor missed out on hearing horror stories from students and professors.
Former CUNY School of Law student Rafaella Gunz said she transferred to Yeshiva University because “I feared for my physical and emotional well-being” at CUNY Law after other students demonized her Zionist Jewish faith.
Joshua Greenberg, a Baruch College student, said he was assaulted because he was a “Jewish, disabled student” and complained about restrictions on prayer. “It’s completely unacceptable what’s going on at Baruch College,” he said.
Michael Goldstein, a professor at Kingsborough Community College, said “it is horrible for Jews at CUNY,” claiming that anti-Semites defaced a photo of his dad, Leonard Goldstein, the former longtime president of Kingsborough, at the Brooklyn campus.
CUNY isn’t the only place in academia where anti-Semitism is considered a problem. Former NYU student Adela Cojab Moadeb said the downtown private college became “very unsafe for Jewish students” as pro-Palestinian supporters “equated Zionism with Naziism” and students were exposed to burning of the Israel flag.
“I was afraid,” said Cojab Moadeb, who filed a federal civil rights complaint against NYU that resulted in a settlement, which The Post reported on in 2020.
Top reps from CUNY testified remotely but did not have data at hand on the number of anti-Jewish incidents on its campuses and acknowledged that it does not have a
systemwide sensitivity training about anti-Semitism.
Bronx Councilman Eric Dinowitz, head of the council’s Jewish Caucus, said he was “deeply disappointed” that the CUNY chancellor decided not to attend.
That and other CUNY officials testifying remotely “doesn’t fill me with hope” that the university overseeing 26 public colleges in the city will aggressively stamp out hatred against Jewish students and professors, Dinowitz said.
“We understand more has to be done,” said CUNY senior vice chancellor for institutional affairs Glenda Grace.