Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt speaks at a conference arranged by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan in 2021. Photo by Shahar Azran
(JTA) — Deborah Lipstadt, who was the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism under President Joe Biden, revealed in an essay published Sunday that she had turned down a position at Columbia University because of the school’s role in recent pro-Palestinian protests.
In the essay, published in The Free Press, Lipstadt said she was not convinced that the Ivy League university was sincere in its efforts to improve the campus climate — and that she was worried that she would face harassment while teaching.
She also said she worried that spending a semester at Columbia while on leave from her appointment at Emory University could whitewash a crisis at Columbia and its affiliated women’s college, Barnard.
“I fear that my presence would be used as a sop to convince the outside world that ‘Yes, we in the Columbia/Barnard orbit are fighting antisemitism. We even brought in the former Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism,’ Lipstadt wrote. “I will not be used to provide cover for a completely unacceptable situation.”
Columbia has been a hotspot of protest over the Israel-Hamas war since it began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. The school was the birthplace of last year’s nationwide encampment movement.
Lipstadt said she had been heartened by Barnard’s decision to expel two students who interrupted an Israeli history course with a pro-Palestinian protest — and then dismayed when the school allowed student protesters who occupied a campus building last week to leave without consequences.
“Watching Barnard capitulate to mob violence and fail to enforce its own rules and regulations led me to conclude that I could not go to Columbia University, even for a single semester,” she wrote, adding that Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, had personally called her after she conveyed her decision on Friday.
The Free Press was founded by Bari Weiss, the crusading journalist who first rose to prominence calling out anti-Israel sentiment at Columbia, from which she graduated.
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