Columbia Rabbi Tells Jewish Students to Leave for Their Own Safety

An Orthodox rabbi who serves the Jewish community at Columbia University sent a message to Jewish students this weekend urging them to leave campus for their own safety in the midst of pro-terror, pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Columbia’s Orthodox rabbi, Elie Buechler, told students that university and city police forces could not protect them, and that Jewish students “should return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved.”

In response to “horrific” scenes of antisemitic harassment at and around campus, the Orthodox Rabbi at Columbia/Barnard sent a WhatsApp message to more than 290+ Jewish students this morning recommending that they go home until it’s safe again for them on campus: pic.twitter.com/uqAntEICLv

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 21, 2024

As Breitbart News reported, Columbia’s campus has been occupied by anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian students who are chanting explicitly pro-Israel slogans. Numerous reports and videos have been shared of explicit taunts against Jews.

Participants at Columbia University Pro-Palestinian Protest Chant: Oh Al-Qassam Brigades, You Make Us Proud, Kill Another Soldier Now! Israel Will Fall! Palestine Is Arab! @Columbia pic.twitter.com/RxAy03B2fS

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) April 18, 2024

Jewish students get harassed trying to leave @Columbia’s campus tonight. You can hear someone yell “Yehudim Yehudim”- “Jews Jews.” They curse and yell “go back to Poland.” Antisemitism has become the new normal here. pic.twitter.com/U2Ii5GTuLm

— David lederer (@Davidlederer6) April 21, 2024

The videos posted last night on Columbia University’s Chabad are shocking.

This isn’t anti-Zionism. It’s blatant antisemitism. pic.twitter.com/7Ggk9dndGv

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyDillon) April 21, 2024

Columbia, long a hotbed of anti-Israel activism, has faced even more extreme protests since the Hamas terror attack of October 7. The administration has suspended some organizations, banned some students from campus, and even brought the New York Police Department onto campus last week to clear an illegal encampment, but the radical protests have continued. (Some students have only received written warnings despite defying university rules.)

The antisemitism at Columbia has drawn international condemnation, including from the president of Israel:

The atrocious antisemitic actions at Columbia University are deeply disturbing. To quote civil rights activist Professor Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel – who marched side by side with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. – we need a “Leap of action”. Indeed, firm and strong action must be…

— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) April 21, 2024

The White House also condemned the antisemitism at Columbia — notably, without also condemning “Islamophobia” at the same time:

However late it may be, this statement from the White House is strong for a number of reasons, not the least of which is it’s the 1st of its kind that hasn’t condemned antisemitism *AND ALL OTHER FORMS OF HATE * (1/2) https://t.co/dyptlWk3jM

— Dan Senor (@dansenor) April 21, 2024

Breitbart News has reached out to Rabbi Buechler for comment.

Columbia is on the Upper West Side of New York, long considered a heavily Jewish area. New York also experienced the worst act of radical Islamic terror in the history of the world just before most of today’s students were born.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.