Jewish students at New York’s Columbia University told Fox News on Monday that campus is increasingly unsafe during ongoing anti-Israel protests and that some plan to heed the call of one prominent rabbi who warned them to leave during Passover.
Xavier Westergaard, a Ph.D. student at the Morningside Heights campus, told “America Reports” the university has descended into “anarchy,” hallmarked by reports New York Police Department (NYPD) officers are unwelcome on campus without administrative invitation.
The NYPD said Monday that Columbia “does not want [the department] present on campus” despite rising tensions and alleged attacks on Jewish students like Westergaard. NYPD Deputy Commissioner Michale Gerber told reporters it remains legal for officers to enter campus for a reported attack as if they were called to a private residence.
Westergaard called the environment on-campus “absolutely dreadful” and “unsafe.” He recounted being purportedly called out by name as he crossed the campus to go to a laboratory session – during which he said he was called out by name and school identification number despite no active confrontation on his part.
“A couple days ago, I was walking across campus, going to my lab where I do my research. Students who were partaking in this protest called me up by name,” he said. ” I don’t know how the hell they know who I am. They shouted out my ID number. They told me that they knew that I was a PhD student in neuroscience or in biology. It was very, very, very scary.”
“I wasn’t carrying an Israeli flag. I wasn’t antagonizing them. I was just going about my business,” Westergaard added, noting he has also been kicked and spat on.
Westergaard said the school’s in-house security are greatly outnumbered by the hundreds of protesters, who continue to accost Jewish students with taunts including “go back to Poland” and “Jewish students, die.”
While the campus officially remains `blocked-off to the general public during the protests, Westergaard claimed protesters are using their college IDs to swipe-in non-students, which adds to the dangerous uncertainty surrounding anti-Israel demonstrators.
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“So even though the campus security has shut down the university, not affiliates, they brought in God knows who subverting the university. And it’s very, very scary,” he said, adding that New York City as a whole seems held to a different standard on antisemitic behavior.
He also condemned Columbia President Nemat Minouche Shafik over her testimony before Congress last week, saying she had a prime opportunity to take a stand against the protesters but that she demurred, which has allowed campus to remain unsafe for people of Jewish faith.
Westergaard called on Shafik to resign, and said the “lunatics are running the asylum,” amid the president’s insufficient approach to the chaos.
One prominent Columbia alumnus, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, has gone so far as to pull his financial support of the university, saying he no longer recognizes his school, as Rabbi Elie Buechler warned Jewish students to observe Passover away from campus.
Another Jewish Columbia student, Daniella Symonds, told “The Story” it is unbelievable that the administrators have acted more strongly against the hate speech and attacks on Jewish students by the protesters:
“It’s crazy to me to think that I study at an institution that literally produces rocket scientists, yet they can’t say that this is hate speech,” Symonds said.
She added that in the aftermath of the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas, Palestinian students and their supporters on campus were seen wearing ethnic keffiyehs, and that she would approach them to have a conversation about the situation, but that the students instead rebuffed her invitation.
Symonds said that, instead, such students would say they didn’t know enough about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, would tell her they’re “not the right person” to talk to on the matter, or simply refer her to Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera for more information on the invasion.
When she approached a group of students selling keffiyehs last fall, Symonds recounted, the students had “nothing to say” when asked about the symbolism or significance of the cultural garb. The headwear is common among Arabic nations and was notably symbolic of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.
Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
