TC Professor Condemns Anti-Semitism

A Teachers College professor whose door was defaced with a swastika decried anti-Semitism at Columbia during a press conference Monday morning on Zankel Steps.

“We’re [Jews are] comfortable here, but we’ll never be safe,” said Professor Elizabeth Midlarsky, who is the faculty adviser for the Teachers College Jewish Association, the group that convened the press conference. “Anti-Semitism is not taken seriously.”

Midlarsky also received anti-Semitic materials denying the Holocaust in her mailbox earlier in the month. The leaflets Midlarsky received featured a cartoon with a man in a yarmulka saying, “I was gassed six times. No! Eight times. No! Ten times,” as well as text in the margin reading, “PLEASE help us expose THE BIGGEST JEWISH LIE!”

The swastika and leaflets were found amid a spate of bias incidents at TC and at Columbia. Earlier in October, a noose was found on Madonna Constantine’s door, a professor in Midlarsky’s department—Counseling and Clinical Psychology—and anti-Semitic graffiti was found in a bathroom stall in Lewisohn Hall. In September, Islamophobic graffiti was found on the walls of a bathroom in the International Affairs Building.

Midlarsky said that the recent, publicized hate crimes are not the only ones she saw during her 17 years at Columbia, noting numerous incidents of swastikas discovered around campus over the last few years.

“These attacks have not occurred in a vacuum,” Midlarsky said. “During my 17 years here, students have come to me singly and in groups, crying about the horribly anti-Semitic materials found all over the campus. What the targeting of a specific person—myself—incidents is that when ignored, these acts of bias escalate.”

“When our civil society ignored the deep feelings and fears associated with events of this kind, the fears of the segment of our population whose families were depleted by he murderous, swastika-wielding hoards are being ignored, and their feelings are being trampled,” Midlarsky added.

TC President Susan Fuhrman said she deplored the hate crime, and that TC has a “zero tolerance” policy for such incidents. She assured students that the administration is working closely with the New York Police Department and the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish-based anti-bigotry organization.

Rebecca Pasternak, TCJA co-president, introduced Midlarsky and announced the creation of the “We Are One” coalition formed to combat anti-Semitism.

Pasternak said that while the coalition supports all victims of hate crime, “It is specifically anti-Jewish speech and activities that are escalating and being swept under the broader banner of unacceptable intolerance in the world today.”

Pasternak condemned the University and TC administration for silence and appealed for stronger action in combating anti-Semitism. “Among us on campus there are professors, administrators, and students in positions of power and influence to denounce such anti-Jewish expressions. With the exception of seldom referenced anti-Semitism, the outcry has amounted to a whisper.” Pasternak called on administrators, specifically University President Lee Bollinger, Barnard President Judith Shapiro, and Fuhrman to craft statements decrying anti-Jewish "policies, curriculum, faculty, organizations, and speakers," and to eventually add the clause to their constitutions.

After the press conference, Midlarsky said that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s appearance was related to a surge of anti-Semitic sentiments. “I do believe there is a connection. But we’ve been getting these flyers for years.” Midlarsky said that she wore a button with Ahmadinejad’s limbs twisted in the form of a swastika, and the pin may have made her a more visible target for hate crimes.

Yonah Blum, Chabad Rabbi at Columbia, escorted Midlarsky to her office and affixed a mezuzah, a scroll often hung in Jewish homes, on her door. Blum said hanging the Mezuzah serves as a “protection to you and to the Jewish community here … The symbolism of purity of a mezuzah on this door that had a swastika on it will be a very powerful … inspiration.”

Joy Resmovits can be reached at joy.resmovits@columbiaspectator.com