Thursday, May 29, 2025
Columbia on Notice: Federal Investigation Concludes University Violated Jewish Students’ Civil Rights
Columbia University has violated the civil rights of Jewish students for going on two years, a federal investigation concludes.
"Columbia University violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by acting with deliberate indifference towards student-on-student harassment of Jewish students," the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education (DOE) revealed in investigatory findings released last week.
The lengthy report concludes a three-month investigation into Columbia by the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, a group of four federal agencies, including DOE and HHS, tasked with finding and prosecuting "perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence."
Now, the school is on official notice. It must comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act or face the Department of Justice in court — and risk losing $5 billion in federal funding.
Title VI
Title VI forbids federally-funded institutions from discriminating against people on the grounds of race, color or national origin, including denying them benefits conferred to others or excluding them from activities.
The federal government can revoke funding to institutions that violate Title VI, but only after proving it in court. To show Columbia violated Jewish students' civil rights, the Department of Justice must prove:
Jewish students at Columbia experienced "severe or pervasive" harassment due to their race, skin color or nationality.
Columbia knew about the harassment.
Columbia could have done something about the harassment.
Columbia was "deliberately indifferent" to the harassment, which could include failing to respond to complaints, only responding after a "lengthy and unjustified delay," or responding in a way that is "clearly unreasonable in light of the known circumstances."
DOE and HHS cite evidence proving each of these points. If Columbia fails to address the violations voluntarily, the Department of Justice will take the school to court.
Findings
The report paints a picture of an institution unwilling or unable to protect Jewish students — despite lip service to the contrary.
It describes frequent, unsanctioned protests preventing Jewish students from accessing library and research facilities or making them afraid to walk to class; references passages from Columbia's own internal antisemitism reports, which describe pro-Hamas students shouting genocidal slurs like, "Yes Hamas, we love you, we support your rockets, too"; and highlights the experiences of students like Eden Yadegar, who testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce in February 2024.
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Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Rockland County group buys St. Christopher property in New Windsor
A Hasidic community from Rockland County has purchased the former St. Christopher's property in New Windsor for approximately $13 million at a bankruptcy sale.
The plan is for the buyers, from the Village of New Square in the Town of Ramapo, to utilize the land as a yeshiva for hundreds of students of the Skver (Hasidic Dynasty). According to court records, the property was purchased by Blooming Grove LLC, which has an address listed in New City in Rockland County.
St. Christopher's, a children's services charity founded in 1881, declared $10 million to $50 million in assets and $1 million to $10 million in liabilities, in a Chapter 11 petition filed last April in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, White Plains.
The McQuade Foundation, an affiliate, declared $1 million to $10 million in assets and liabilities in a separate petition. St. Christopher's operated Welcoming Arms for Unaccompanied Minors, a shelter in New Windsor for children who migrated to the U.S. without adults. It also operated facilities in Dobbs Ferry and Valhalla.
The organization served 80 children and 170 families when it closed.
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Tuesday, May 27, 2025
Brooklyn Tween Speaks to Mayor Adams on Supposedly ‘Dangerous’ Bike Lane, Gets Booed By Hasidic Men
On Thursday night, I went to my first town hall. Mayor Adams came to speak at Beis Chana School on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg. I live nearby and went with my dad — but I got there a little late because I had a math test.
There were about 150 people in the room. Most of the audience were Hasidic men from the Satmar community. Some Hasidic women were there, too, seated separately according to custom, and the rest were other residents from Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant. The auditorium wasn't full, and the mood wasn't tense. People seemed mostly content. There wasn't a lot of anger in the room, despite predictions of conflict that stemmed from fliers posted all over the neighborhood to encourage participating by anti-bike locals.
It was clear the mayor had strong ties to the crowd. Many of the speakers said they knew him from when he was a police officer in Brooklyn. People greeted him like an old friend. The meeting stayed respectful, and the questions brought up real issues — but there weren't any fireworks.
Rabbi David Niederman, the powerful leader of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, got to speak first. Despite so many threats to Jewish people in the city, and the world, Niederman's biggest concern was the protected bike lane that the city installed on Bedford Avenue between Dean Street and Flushing Avenue. He said it was "dangerous."
Mayor Adams turned it over to Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez who patiently explained that Bedford Avenue is simply safer since the bike lane went in about six months ago. Many Hasidic children have been injured by car drivers along that stretch, but those injuries are less frequent now, thanks to the narrowing of the roadway, which reduces speeding.
He reminded the audience that protected bike lanes make roadways safer for all users.
That seemed to defuse some tension, as the meeting no longer became all about the bike lane, as was predicted. Yes, there were some speakers who addressed it, but several questions were about housing. And a man who works in construction talked about how long it takes to get a final fire inspection from the FDNY, and how those delays are costing developers a lot of money. The mayor said it was a difficult issue — and that he actually couldn't help much. He mentioned that the last time he tried to get involved in speeding up FDNY inspections, he ended up getting into a lot of legal trouble. He added that the city might look into using AI or outside contractors to help reduce the delays.
There were also a few questions about delivery bikes not having insurance. That always seems to come up. But as I biked down the Bedford Avenue bike lane to the meeting, I passed 10 to 20 e-trikes making deliveries — all of them from Hasidic grocery stores. These vehicles aren't legal because they don't have pedals, which the law requires. But in Williamsburg — and in Boro Park, too — the police take a hands-off approach to enforcement that would never happen in other parts of the city. Everyone seems to know it, and somehow it works. No one talks about it, probably because the system benefits everyone. The argument over bike lanes becomes a kind of stand-in — a way to complain about change, to push back against how the city is evolving. It's less about safety and more about the feeling that something familiar is slipping away.
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Thursday, May 22, 2025
Chabad at UNR acquires property for first Jewish student center
Chabad at the University of Nevada, Reno has announced the acquisition of two adjacent properties totaling nearly 12,000 square feet to establish the university's first permanent Jewish student center.
The purchase was finalized on May 14.
The planned facility will include a ballroom, student lounge, kosher kitchen, event space, hospitality suites, classrooms, and other amenities focused on student needs.
The development is part of a $4 million investment aimed at supporting student well-being, cultural engagement, and inclusion.
"This first step towards a permanent Jewish student center is a significant milestone in the community's ongoing commitment to inclusion, cultural vibrancy and student well-being," said University of Nevada, Reno President and former Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, who is a member of the Honorary Building Committee. "Our campus thrives on the strength of its diversity, and this center reinforces Chabad at UNR's dedication to building a campus culture rooted in belonging, understanding and respect for all.
I want to thank and congratulate Rabbi Dani Libersohn and Chabad at UNR for all they do for our University and our Jewish students."
The center represents the initial phase of a three-stage plan.
Phase Two includes the construction of a full Chabad House, and Phase Three will involve the development of subsidized Jewish student housing.
Chabad at UNR is encouraging community involvement in the project.
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Wednesday, May 21, 2025
NY radio host: Liberal Jews are 'killing us'
In an interview with ILTV News at the Jerusalem Conference in New York on Sunday, Rosenberg said that New York has "a lot of Jews." Some, he said, are "the strongest Jews in the world." However, others—liberal Jews—he described as "the weakest Jews in the world."
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Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Mikveh stone at the Tower of London
A medieval mikveh stone from the Jewish Museum is being installed at the Tower of London this month.
The mikveh was discovered on a building site in the City of London in 2001. It was built in the home of the Crespin family, members of the Jewish community that lived in the area during the medieval period.
The excavated stones were then installed in situ at the museum's London site before being disassembled and put into storage during the site closure in 2023.
The stone will now help represent the importance of the medieval Jewish community within the Tower, and demonstrate to a wider audience the longstanding history of Judaism within England.
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Monday, May 19, 2025
Queens College ‘cleans house’ of Jewish accounting professors after ‘antisemitic hate’ erupts on campus: lawsuit
Queens College purged its accounting department of Jewish adjunct professors after "antisemitic hate speech and violence" erupted on campus following the Hamas terror attack on Israel, according to a lawsuit.
Adjunct accounting professor Helen Schwalb says the City University of New York school declined to reappoint her in May 2023 — along with five Jewish colleagues — as part of an effort to "clean house of its Jewish staff," she claimed in court papers.
The school "kept younger, non-Jewish educators with lower performance ratings," Schwalb, 66, contended.
"The only remaining Jews in the [accounting] department are those with tenure who are in their 70s and 80s and will likely retire soon," she said in the Brooklyn Federal Court lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages.
Schwalb, of Rockland County, taught two or three classes each semester as well as summer classes at the school since 2012 and had high performance ratings, she said.
Queens College has been accused of "repeatedly" failing to stop a "barrage of antisemitic hate speech and violence that emerged on campus since the October 7, 2023 massacre of Israelis by Hamas," she said in the litigation.
Enrollment in the school's accounting department is down 39% between 2020 and 2024, the school told The Post, with an 18% drop between 2022 and 2023. Queens College declined comment on the lawsuit.
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Thursday, May 15, 2025
The rise of Yehuda Kaploun: How a Hasidic fixer became Trump’s nominee for antisemitism czar
The first time Yehuda Kaploun's name entered the Congressional Record, it was because a senator named Joe Biden had elevated his concerns about antisemitism.
The second time came last week, 32 years later, when President Donald Trump, who preceded and followed Biden in the White House, formally nominated Kaploun to an ambassador-level role tasked with fighting antisemitism.
Taken together, the two moments might suggest a straightforward ascent from Kaploun's time as a young firebrand and Brooklyn yeshiva student to government office — the potential capstone of the rabbi's career.
But his path has been more complicated. Over the decades, Kaploun has occupied a unique place in Jewish communal life, cultivating influence through quiet diplomacy, high-level political connections and moments of controversy.
His story includes a longstanding relationship with the Adelson family and, before he died, Elie Wiesel; a deepening alliance with the political right; and a lawsuit involving allegations of infidelity and personal betrayal.
That lawsuit alleged that Kaploun conducted an affair with a married woman he met through his Orthodox congregation, and threatened her husband to keep it quiet. It was quietly settled just days before Trump announced the nomination.
If confirmed, Kaploun would become the most senior Hasidic Jewish official in U.S. government history. The position he's been tapped for appears to have survived a broad restructuring at the State Department that eliminated many other roles. He is now slated for a Senate confirmation hearing, where lawmakers are expected to question him on his character, background, and worldview.
Kaploun declined to comment for this story, saying he was refraining from interviews until after the confirmation process. But last year, as he became more visible in Trump's campaign, he acknowledged a shift in posture.
"I've always preferred working behind the scenes," Kaploun told The Jerusalem Post at the time. "But given the challenges the Jewish community faces today, I realized it was time to speak publicly."
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Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Trump admin backs Jewish professor’s discrimination case against CUNY school
The Trump administration filed federal court papers backing a Jewish professor who claimed she was subjected to a hostile work environment fueled by antisemitic, Israel-bashing protests at CUNY's Hunter College.
CUNY-Hunter filed a motion to dismiss the civil rights lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court by Leah Garrett, chair of the Jewish Studies Center, saying the vitriol was protected by free speech under the First Amendment.
But the US Department of Justice headed by Attorney General Pam Bondi intervened in the case Monday, filing a "statement of interest" stressing the importance of abiding by the federal civil rights law that bars discrimination and subjecting employees and students in educational institutions to a hostile workplace.
"CUNY Hunter may not simply rely on the First Amendment to avoid any scrutiny of whether it is liable under Title VI (Civil Rights law] for its failure to prevent disruptions that Dr. Garrett contends contributed to a hostile work environment," the 26-page brief filed by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said.
"The First Amendment does not prevent CUNY Hunter from regulating material campus disruptions that may contribute to a hostile work environment under Title VI [of the civil rights law]."
In her suit filed last December, Garrett ripped the public university's leaders for turning a blind eye to antisemitic demonstrations across its Upper East Side campus in the aftermath of Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks on Israel. Garrett claimed the school allowed students to brandish posters with blood dripping from a Star of David and demanding Zionists be expelled.
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Monday, May 12, 2025
Cops arrest 9 Jewish men for trying to smuggle sacrificial goat onto Temple Mount
Police arrested nine Jewish men who tried to smuggle a sacrificial goat onto the Temple Mount in Jerusalem Monday afternoon.
The group of young men were filmed in the Old City heading to one of the entrances to the Temple Mount compound with a baby goat concealed in a Rami Levy supermarket shopping bag.
Scuffles with police guarding the entrance broke out as the group tried to force its way into the compound.
One of the young men chanted the Shema prayer as police scrambled to block their entry, but some were able to slip by the officers, including the suspect with the goat.
Once inside the compound, the man carrying the kid fell to the ground in prostration, having cast the pink shopping bag aside.
He stood back up and then moments later was wrestled back by Waqf officials while he held the animal under one arm.
Others in the group were unable to make it through and began to brawl with a religious Muslim man outside the gate. One of the Jewish men shouted, "Who are you?" at the older man as a cop placed himself between the two.
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Thursday, May 08, 2025
Upstate NY legal battle underlines Hasidic community growing pains
New York State Attorney General Letitia James came out in support of federal intervention in a dispute over a Jewish housing development in the Catskills region, in a local conflict that has highlighted ongoing growing pains for Hasidic communities around New York City and alleged antisemitism in small towns.
James issued a warning to officials in the town of Forestburgh who have allegedly blocked Hasidic Jews from building homes in the community. She called the allegations "profoundly disturbing" and said that, if proven true, the claims would violate the federal Fair Housing Act.
"Discrimination on the basis of religion, race, national origin, or other protected characteristics — whether explicit or cloaked in pretext — is not only illegal but fundamentally un-American," she wrote in a letter on Monday that backed a federal statement of interest in the case, one of several similar disputes in the tri-state area.
The defendants' legal team responded in a letter to James's office, saying that the town agreed with James's support for religious liberty and housing non-discrimination, but that her characterization of the case was "inaccurate or incomplete."
The dispute stems from a 2022 civil lawsuit filed in the federal Southern District of New York court against the town of Forestburgh, its zoning board, and several town officials. The plaintiffs are Lost Lake Holdings and Mishconos Mazah, companies owned by Hasidic Jews.
The two companies said they had bought land for a development in 2020. The previous owner, who was not Jewish, had obtained approval to build more than 2,600 residential units at the 3.3-square-mile site. The town board had described that development as a "wonderful project" and local residents backed the non-Jewish company, the lawsuit said. The rural town has a population of around 900.
The company failed to carry out the construction project, and the two Jewish companies bought the site. After local officials realized Hasidic Jews had acquired the land for development, the town set up a series of obstructions to prevent construction. Local officials and inspectors denied building permit applications, conducted an illegal search of the property, over-assessed the value of the site to drive up taxes, issued stop-work orders, and adopted a local law that imposed a 1,000% increase in fees, among other measures, the lawsuit alleged.
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Wednesday, May 07, 2025
Union critical of Israel targets Monsey Hasidic community with anti-Lawler ads
A new campaign is targeting Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish voters in Monsey, N.Y., with ads calling on voters to contact Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) to oppose proposals cutting Medicaid funding. But the group behind those ads has its own checkered history with Jewish community issues.
The ads, which are running both in Yiddish and English in local Jewish community publications, direct viewers to a website to send a form email to their lawmakers, identifying themself as a member of the Jewish community and opposing cuts to Medicaid programs as particularly harmful to local Jewish communities. Republicans have said such cuts are likely as part of the upcoming budget reconciliation bill.
The campaign largely targets Lawler, who represents many of the Hasidic communities in Rockland County and has been fending off accusations from Democrats and liberal groups that he is backing cuts to Medicaid. He has pledged that he will "never cast a vote that takes Medicaid away from eligible recipients who rely on this vital program," but instead wants to crack down on fraud within the program.
One of the groups behind those advertisements, healthcare union 1199SEIU, has a history of anti-Israel activism.
In December 2023, the group called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, while also condemning the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and calling for the unconditional release of hostages. It suggested both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes.
In October 2024, the group called for an arms embargo on Israel, saying, "the Netanyahu government has used the October 7 atrocities to justify inexcusable destruction and killing in Gaza, creating an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in the region."
It also condemned Israeli operations in Lebanon, while also accusing both Israel and Hezbollah of war crimes.
The national SEIU umbrella organization has criticized crackdowns on antisemitic activity on college campuses.
In their individual capacity, 1199SEIU staff and members have signed on to statements accusing Israel of genocide and supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel. Some leaders inside the national SEIU organization expressed support for Hamas.
A Lawler spokesperson suggested that it's hypocritical for the group to attempt to appeal to the Jewish community given its history of Israel criticism.
"We strongly condemn SEIU1199 for targeting Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish voters in Rockland with blatantly false ads," a Lawler spokesperson said in a statement. "The irony of SEIU1199 attempting to appeal to Jewish voters while having a history of supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, supporting pro-Hamas encampments on our universities, and pushing for an arms embargo on Israel is comical. SEIU1199 should immediately retract these advertisements and issue an apology."
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Monday, May 05, 2025
New York State Poised to Scale Back Oversight of Religious Schools
A new measure under consideration by New York lawmakers could substantially limit oversight of religious schools, marking a possible major victory for the state's Hasidic yeshivas, the NY Times reported on Thursday.
A 2022 investigation by the Times revealed that many yeshivas—despite receiving $1 billion in public funding over the previous four years—were failing to teach core academic subjects. Although Hasidic yeshivas rely heavily on government support, most of them offer little instruction in English or math. In response, the state Education Department issued new guidelines requiring schools to meet minimum educational standards or face the loss of public funding.
In February, the New York State Education Department announced it would cut key funding for two all-boys Hasidic yeshivas in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and relocate their students to other schools by next fall. The decision effectively shuttered both institutions, marking the state's most forceful action to date against yeshivas found in violation of education laws.
The two schools that were effectively shut down by the state are part of a broader network of yeshivas that have failed to make adequate progress in complying with Education Department requirements. The leadership of the two institutions—Yeshiva Talmud Torah of Kasho and Yeshiva Bnei Shimon Yisroel of Sopron, both located in Williamsburg—declined to meet with education officials to develop an improvement plan.
The department has announced its intention to close six Hasidic yeshivas that are failing to comply with state law. These yeshivas face a forthcoming June 30 deadline to demonstrate that they provide an education "substantially equivalent" to that of public schools, as required by regulations issued in 2022.
But now the state is weighing a proposal to lower the standards that religious schools must meet to prove compliance with education law. While the changes would formally apply to all private schools, they are primarily relevant to Hasidic yeshivas, where instruction is largely conducted in Yiddish and Hebrew, and secular studies are often limited.
The initiative has been spearheaded by Simcha Felder, who previously served in the State Senate representing a large section of Brooklyn before his recent election to the City Council, and Simcha Eichenstein, the Assembly member for a neighboring district.
Resisting state oversight of religious education is a top political priority for the Hasidic community, which tends to vote as a bloc in local and state-wide elections.
The draft bill, submitted on March 11 by the Assembly without naming a sponsor, has surfaced in the final stages of budget negotiations—a sign that its anonymous sponsors look to bypass the legislative process by inserting it directly into a budget bill.
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Thursday, May 01, 2025
Ben Shapiro Celebrates Israel’s 77th with Jerusalem’s Kehillat Eretz Hemdah
In the heart of Old Katamon, there exists a community that embodies the very essence of what makes Israel extraordinary. For those who have never encountered Kehillat Eretz Hemdah (KEH), they represent something truly special in Jerusalem's rich tapestry of cultural identity.
Led by the respected HaRav Pinchas Biton, this vibrant Modern Orthodox synagogue brings together approximately 100 families consisting of Israelis and olim who share a profound commitment to Torah, prayer, and acts of kindness. However, what distinguishes KEH is not merely their devotion to tradition, but their strong support of the one and only Jewish state. They actively support IDF soldiers through initiatives like "Operation Tzitzit" and their KEH Gives program which provides essential equipment to those serving on the front lines.
Watch below as the community celebrates Israel's 77th independence day with special guest Ben Shapiro, bestselling author and Daily Wire co-founder, capturing the spirit of joy, gratitude, and unity that defines this remarkable Jerusalem kehillah.
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