Shai Davidai does not consider himself a rebel.
An Ivy League university begs to differ.
Davidai, an assistant professor of business at Columbia University in New York, is a vocal presence in the school’s Jewish community. On Oct. 7, 2024, a group on campus was staging a memorial during the one year anniversary of Hamas’ invasion of Israel.
In the midst of the service, an anti-Israel faction began demonstrating in the same space.
“We heard and saw online that they were planning to counter protest our memorial service,” said Davidai. “We had a beautiful event outside, very calm, no problems at all.
“Then the protesters came, holding signs clearly glorifying the Oct. 7 massacre, interfering with our memorial service.
“I think it’s a completely abhorrent thing that the university would allow this, but that’s what they did.”
Davidai, originally from Kiryat Ono, outside Tel Aviv, immediately raised concerns with Cas Holloway, chief operating officer at Columbia.
“I said, ‘this is unacceptable,’” Davidai said.
“From day one since the attack, my problem has never been against those who hate me. It’s with the administrators who allow hate to just fester, without control.
“You can’t have different rules just because I’m a Jewish professor who is speaking up. I was really shaken to my core because I had planned that day to be all about commemorating.”
That night, Columbia “temporarily” banned Davidai from campus —indefinitely.
“The university officials said I was banned for harassing five university officials and faculty members,” Davidai told the IJN, “and for endangering a Jewish student by encouraging her to go into the anti-Israel protest.
“The important thing for people to understand is the things we’re seeing now on campus at Columbia are not new, and there are many precursors to this.
“One of the precursors to what we saw on Oct. 7 of this year happened on April 12, 2018, when students held a Yom HaShoah memorial service for the Holocaust. That was also protested by Students for Justice in Palestine back then.
“The university could have nipped it in the bud back then before it became such a big movement. But they’re awfully accepting of Jew hatred on campus. And when you’re accepting of Jew hatred, that’s what you get.”
Last week, Davidai’s attorney said the professor had to complete three steps of “training” to be able to return to campus.
“I feel like innocent people shouldn’t be paying any price,” said Davidai,” who was not teaching during the current semester.
“On the other hand, I want to be on campus and be with the Jewish students. They have told me I have to complete three, one-hour training sessions if I want to teach next semester.”
In the midst of Davidai’s exile from campus, he has been a sought-after speaker. More than 400 congregants heard Davidai’s saga at HEA on Oct. 29.
“I’ve been documenting everything with the help of a group called Documenting Jew Hatred on Campus, which started after Oct. 7, so people know what’s going on,” said Davidai, who has taught at Columbia since 2019, after prior teaching positions at Princeton and Cornell.
“Columbia is trying to keep this under wraps. This is this latest attempt of getting me out of Columbia.
“The students and faculty who have been protesting against Israel, against Jews and against the US, have been following the 1968 playbook. Those protests started off as anti-Vietnam, and then evolved into the anti-Vietnam War protests, then evolved into the Weather Underground, and the killing of innocent Americans. The bombings of postal services around the country started at Columbia.”
Whenever this episode ends — and whether that means Davidai will have to seek work elsewhere — Davidai has one message for his students, and anyone else who will listen:
“The thing I must stress and I keep stressing every time I speak with people, is my fight is not against Columbia. My fight is against Columbia’s administration. This is in the same way as when I was in Israel, protesting Israel’s government, my fight was not against Israel. My fight was against the current coalition.
“Why? Because you fight to preserve things you love.”
“Most of all, it is the importance of fighting back.”
Shai Davidai can be heard on the Oct. 31 edition of the IJN Cast, on ijn.com/ijn-cast.
© IJN 2024
