September 4, 2023

The recent CUNY Law School commencement address, which the school’s administration approved of and applauded, exposed CUNY’s blatant, unapologetic encouragement of antisemitism, endorsement of BDS, and condoning of Jew-hatred on campus. When called out, CUNY’s responded by ignoring critics and doubling down on its position. Despite the widespread outrage and condemnation, CUNY has now hired known antisemite Marc Lamont Hill who was fired by CNN for his Jew-hatred and was simultaneously under investigation by Temple University’s board.

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Temple University President Richard M. Englert stated, “Let me be clear: Professor Hill does not represent Temple University.” Patrick O’Connor, the chairman of Temple’s board, had directed legal counsel to explore options and “remedies,” and stated that members of the administration and board of trustees wanted to “fire him right away.” O’Connor stated that Hill’s comments were “lamentable” and “disgusting. Free speech is one thing. Hate speech is entirely different.”

Despite Hill’s racist history and prior dismissal, CUNY has welcomed him with open arms and an enviable salary. Marc Lamont Hill is now Presidential Professor of Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate School.

Hill has unequivocally proclaimed that a key mission of the Black Lives Matter movement is to annihilate the State of Israel. “Black Lives Matter very explicitly is talking about the dismantling of a Zionist project, dismantling of a settler-colonial project and very explicitly embracing BDS,” stated Hill. He has labeled Israel as, “…a land that has been stolen by greed and destroyed by hate,” and stated that Israel was “poisoning” Palestinian water. “We have an opportunity…to commit to…what justice requires and that is a free Palestine from the river to the sea,” says the unapologetic antisemite.

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All humans opposed to racism and bigotry know that his insistence that he’s an “anti-Zionist” is intended to mask his antisemitism. It is plain and simple. Denying my people our right to self-determination as the Indigenous natives in the ancestral lands of our matriarchs and patriarchs is antisemitism.

Hill’s philosophy is the same that we see behind the wrath of Pharoah, the destruction of our Temples, the exile from our homeland, our eviction from Spain, unsparing pogroms, the horrors of Holocaust, and the expulsion of 259,000 Jews from Morocco, 140,000 from Algeria, 100,000 from Tunisia, 75,000 from Egypt, 38,000 from Libya 135,000 from Iraq, 55,000 from Yemen, 34,000 from Turkey, 20,000 from Lebanon, 18,000 from Syria and 25,000 from Iran. Thus, he proudly dictates a decree for our demise. This is no surprise at CUNY, where Palestinian activists applaud our massacres and BDS supporters salute the appointment of Hill.

Image: Marc Lamont Hill (cropped), who looks like a nice guy but isn’t, by Way180. CC BY-SA 3.0.

CUNY is home to Students for Justice in Palestine (“SJP”) with branches at Brooklyn College, College of Staten Island, Hunter College, and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. SJP supports terrorism, commits violent acts against those they label “Zionists,” harasses and physically assaults Jewish and pro-Israel students, and aggressively disrupts pro-Israel events.

For me, personally, the saddest component of the overt Antisemitism at CUNY is the respect it denies and the dishonor it affords to the memories of countless Jews who generously contributed to the founding, funding, racial harmony, and remarkable reputation that CUNY once represented.

These individuals include Bernard Baruch of Baruch College, Larry and Carole Zicklin of the Zicklin School of Business, Mildred and George Weissman of the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, Herbert H. Lehman of Lehman College, Paul Klapper of Queens College, Samuel & Ethel LeFrak of Lefrak Concert Hall, Benjamin Rosenthal of the Rosenthal Library, Max & Selma Kupferberg of the Kupferberg Center for the Arts, and many others.

CUNY prides itself on its 14 Alumni and faculty Nobel Laureates. They include CUNY graduate John O’Keefe, Nobel laureate in Medicine, and thirteen Jews, including 17% of all female Nobel laureates in Medicine.

  • Robert J. Aumann 1950 – Nobel laureate in Economics, 2005
  • Julius Axelrod 1933 – Nobel laureate in Medicine, 1970
  • Kenneth Arrow 1940 – Nobel laureate in Economics, 1972
  • Stanley Cohen 1943 – Nobel laureate in Medicine, 1986
  • Gertrude Elion 1937 – Nobel laureate in Medicine, 1988
  • Herbert Hauptman 1937 – Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1985
  • Robert Hofstadter 1935 – Nobel laureate in Physics, 1961
  • Jerome Karle 1937 – Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1985
  • Arthur Kornberg 1937 – Nobel laureate in Medicine, 1959
  • Paul Krugman 2014 Distinguished faculty – Nobel laureate in Economics, 2008
  • Leon M. Lederman 1943 – Nobel laureate in Physics, 1988
  • Arno Penzias 1954 – Nobel laureate in Physics, 1978
  • Rosalyn Sussman Yalow – 1941 Nobel laureate in Medicine, 1977