Columbia University Interim President Katrina Armstrong has exhibited a neutral and waffling stance on the Israel-Hamas war and campus antisemitism in her public statements, raising questions about whether she will forcefully defend Jewish students as classes begin in the coming weeks. 

The Ivy League university announced on Wednesday that Armstrong would replace embattled former President Minouche Shafik. Armstrong’s ascension to the presidency comes amid withering criticism from Jewish students and alumni, as well as US lawmakers, over the campus climate in the months following Hamas’ Oct. 7 onslaught across southern Israel.

While serving as the Dean of the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia, Armstrong waited two days to address the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, which included rampant sexual violence against Israelis and the biggest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

In a letter titled “Regarding the crisis in Israel,” Armstrong lamented the “terrible violence and loss of life” in the Jewish state. The letter did not mention Hamas, which rules Gaza, nor did it mention the some 25 hostages kidnapped or 1,200 people slaughtered at the hands of the Palestinian terrorist group. 

“The scale of the conflict engulfing Israel and Gaza and the impact on innocent civilians are horrifying,” the Oct. 9 letter read. “Those of us with friends, loved ones, or colleagues in the region are worrying about their safety and feel this especially acutely. This is a time for us to come together and to embrace each other with compassion and empathy.”

Armstrong published a statement on Dec. 22 referring to simmering campus tensions over the ensuing Israel-Hamas war as a “complicated moment.” In contrast to her first statement, Armstrong mentioned Hamas’ murders and hostages. She also acknowledged the growing problem of campus antisemitism at the New York City-based university. 

“The Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack and the hostages remaining in captivity weigh very heavily on many in our community. And I have heard personal stories from other student leaders about the heartrending situation in Gaza where the civilian death toll continues to climb and military strikes go on,” Armstrong wrote. 

In April, Armstrong penned a statement in response to the anti-Israel encampments on Columbia’s campus. She urged students to maintain focus on their academic work while they navigate the “immensely difficult issues that are roiling” the university.

“Every member of our community holds personal opinions of the events of the last week, and past months. Though your views and personal journeys are many, the distress and pain we feel is experienced by all,” Armstrong wrote.

Armstrong continued, emphatically denouncing “hateful language, calls for violence, and the targeting of any individuals or groups based on their beliefs, ancestry, religion, gender identity, or any other identity or affiliation.”

Columbia’s campus descended into chaos last spring. Anti-Israel campus activists held raucous rallies, chanting slogans such as “Burn Tel Aviv to the ground!” and “go back to Poland!” Jewish students reported heading home early to avoid the hostile campus atmosphere.

Since Oct. 7, Columbia University has become a hub of rising antisemitism and anti-Israel activism on American college campuses. In the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ attacks, numerous Columbia student groups issued statements blaming Israel for the massacre. Several campus groups categorically banned “Zionist” students from membership. Jewish students reported antisemitic bias and discrimination from Columbia faculty and staff. 

The US Congress initiated an investigation into antisemitism at the Ivy League campus. Three Columbia deans stepped down from their positions after the House Committee on Education and the Workforce released a trove of text message exchanges among the administrators. In the texts, the university leaders exhibited a dismissive attitude toward the experiences of Jewish students on campus. 

In the immediate aftermath of Minouche’s resignation, the Columbia chapter of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP campus group released a statement vowing to continue their demonstrations. The group warned Armstrong to acquiesce to their demands or face consequences. 

“After months of chanting ‘Minouche Shafik you can’t hide’ she finally got the memo. To be clear, any future president who does not pay heed to the Columbia student body’s overwhelming demand for divestment [from Israel] will end up exactly as President Shafik did,” the group wrote on X/Twitter.

Columbia’s SJP chapter publicly endorsed Hamas in May.

The post Columbia University Interim President Issued Delayed, Neutral Statements About Hamas Oct. 7 Attack, Campus Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

News coverage in the Martha’s Vineyard Times tends to stick to local concerns — labor negotiations between the Steamship Authority and the union that operates the ferry between the island and Cape Cod, the perennial shortage of “affordable” housing for year-round and seasonal workers, shark sightings.

For the past few weeks, though, the Times has been on a campaign against the Martha’s Vineyard Chabad after it hosted a Jewish cultural festival event featuring the singer Matisyahu.

Instead of writing about the festival, the newspaper highlighted a small anti-Israel protest against it. Then it ran another story focusing on a protester-participant, and a third story attacking the festival’s organizer.

One Times news article referred to Israel’s “brutal military campaign” and quoted a protester who said, “We are here to reject the presence of someone who performs and fundraises for the Israeli Occupation Forces and the AIPAC lobbying group, condones violence against the Palestinian people and land in the name of Jewish safety, and denies ongoing genocide.”

The onslaught of hostile coverage has generated a disappointed response from readers.

One of them, Jackie Mendez, took to the newspaper’s comments section. “What is Jewish culture? The MVTimes doesn’t care to explain. Instead, it chooses to give yet more time and space to the ignorance and hatred of Israel,” Mendez wrote. “This newspaper gave editorial space to this kind of rabid Jew-hatred.”

Another reader, Judith Hannan, a former columnist for the Times, wrote in a letter to the editor, “The main issue I think so many of us have is that an event to celebrate a rich and diverse culture, under a literal and metaphorical broad tent, was covered with such bias so the reader walks away with no more understanding of Jewish heritage and culture than they had already.”

The rabbi of Chabad on the Vineyard, Tzvi Alperowitz, wrote in an email to his community that he was disappointed by the coverage. “The Jewish Culture Festival was a tremendous and remarkable community celebration. Close to one thousand people gathered in absolute harmony and unity to proudly celebrate Jewish culture and identity,” Alperowitz wrote. “But instead of a beautiful story about Jewish resilience and celebration in spite of the most tragic year for Jews since the Holocaust, the MV Times cynically chose to paint their coverage of the event through the lens of the few protesters who stood outside.”

Alperowitz continued: “That’s a choice that reflects poorly on the MV Times and its editorial team. Every rational individual can see straight through the piece and understands that it was a cynical use of clickbait to turn a proudly Jewish event into an opinion article bashing Israel.”

Who is in charge at the Martha’s Vineyard Times? The paper was purchased in January of this year by Stephen Bernier, who installed as publisher Charles Sennott. Sennott is a former Middle East bureau chief of the Boston Globe, where he was notorious for the anti-Israel tilt of his coverage. The watchdog organization Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) called Sennott “a virtual spokesman for the Palestinian side,” warning that “under Charles Sennott, the Boston Globe is in danger of reviving its former tradition of blaming Israel first, no matter what the facts.”

Since leaving the Globe, Sennott has been pursuing nonprofit journalism ventures, the latest of which is The GroundTruth Project, where he is listed as the founder and editor-in-chief. The GroundTruth website also lists former New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet as one of its directors, and the Ford Foundation as among its funders.

CAMERA has also been sharply critical of Sennott’s work with the GroundTruth Project. A CAMERA report on a three-part Sennott series attacking Christian Zionism called the work “outrageous” and said it featured “bigoted and sloppy reporting.”

“Sennott indoctrinates young journalists with his long-standing anti-Israel, anti-American, and anti-Evangelical biases,” Dexter Van Zile, then with CAMERA, wrote in a 2019 blog post for the Times of Israel. Van Zile then quoted David Parsons, vice president and senior international spokesperson for the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem. “There are only two journalists I will never work with again and one of them is Charles Sennott,” Parsons said.

In a Dec. 15, 2023, LinkedIn posting, just weeks before assuming the Martha’s Vineyard Times role, Sennott faulted Israel for deliberately and “with impunity” killing scores of Palestinian and Lebanese journalists. Israel has disclosed evidence that some of the “journalists” were members of Gaza-based terrorist organizations. Sennott’s article, while faulting Israel, also omitted that Hamas restricts the activities of journalists in Gaza, with threats of violence.

I wrote to Sennott asking him whether he is trying to turn the weekly island newspaper into a vehicle for pushing an anti-Israel agenda, or whether there is a conflict in his dual roles at the Martha’s Vineyard Times and at the Ground Truth Project.

So far, I haven’t gotten a reply from him.

Update: Sennott responded to The Algemeiner after press time, and his response will be the subject of a forthcoming column.

Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. His media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.

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The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) said on Friday that its board will conduct an “independent external review into our policies, procedures, and processes” in light of its decision this week to cancel a performance by Australian-British pianist Jayson Gillham after he made ardently anti-Israel comments about the ongoing war in Gaza.

MSO said the review will also “canvass the events” leading up to its decision to call off Gillham’s concert that was scheduled for this Thursday. More information about the review will be revealed when details are finalized.

“The board determined a formal review would provide transparency and certainty for our people — including our musicians, management, and employees — and our broader community of audience members, supporters, and other stakeholders,” the MSO said. “The review will help ensure our policies and processes reflect best practice in the contemporary environment.”

The MSO added that it is “determined to ensure we have the protocols in place that are fit for purpose for our organization and the role we play within the community.”

The formal review was announced after musicians of the MSO passed on Thursday night a vote of no confidence in Managing Director Sophie Galaise and Chief Operating Officer Guy Ross because of how they handled the situation with Gillham.

“We no longer have faith in the abilities of our senior management to make decisions that are in the best interests of the company at large,” the orchestra’s musicians said in a letter to the board. “We believe it is the duty of senior management to lead and manage in accordance with the MSO’s values and behaviors; however, it has become apparent that these values no longer appear to be aligned with those of the orchestra and staff.”

The musicians called for Ross and Galaise’s resignations. They also asked for an “impartial investigation into both the events of the cancellation of Jayson Gillham this week, and further into the general standards of leadership that have led to the ongoing issues with communication, morale, and psychosocial hazards affecting our workforce.”

Gillham, who is described on the MSO website as “one of the finest pianists of his generation,” performed the world premiere of a five-minute piece called “Witness” at his recital on Sunday at Iwaki Auditorium in Southbank, where he also performed a number of other works by composers such as Beethoven and Chopin. The piece was written by Australian composer Connor D’Netto and dedicated to Palestinian journalists. The MSO said it was a last-minute addition to the show.

When introducing the piece to the audience, Gillham claimed, “Israel had killed more than 100 Palestinian journalists” in the Gaza Strip during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. “The killing of journalists is a war crime in international law, and it is done in an effort to prevent the documentation and broadcasting of war crimes to the world,” Gillham also claimed before playing “Witness.” He additionally accused Israel of “targeted assassinations of prominent journalists” who were traveling in marked press vehicles or wearing press jackets.

On social media, the pianist has accused Israel of occupation, genocide, ethnic cleansing, colonialism, and apartheid. He has promoted the slogan “Free Palestine” and wrote in an Instagram post uploaded on April 2: “Every day is a day closer to the end of the Z!%nist regime in Pa/est|ne and the Z!%nist stranglehold on Western nations.” He criticized Western countries for supporting Israel and compared the “genocide” of Palestinians in Gaza to the Holocaust. On Instagram, he has a “highlight” dedicated to the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which he encourages others to follow.

On X/Twitter, Gillham reposted a message in which Zionists are compared to Nazis and a separate post that said Israel’s goals in Gaza are “civilian deaths and destruction.” Gillham said the latter claim “seems obvious but worth repeating.” He also reposted a message about US President Joe Biden and his vice president, 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, that called them “Genocide Joe and Kamala Harris” for “using the ‘we need a ceasefire now to release the hostages!’ line for 6 months to launder the ongoing Gaza genocide and rape of Palestinians by the Israelis they vow to forever arm and fund.” Gillham has also made accusations about Australia’s “complicity in genocide” for supporting Israel.

The pianist was set to perform again at the Melbourne Town Hall on Thursday with the MSO, but the latter canceled his appearance in the recital because of his comments about Israel. The entire concert has since been cancelled due to safety concerns, according to the MSO. The orchestra said it is trying to reschedule the performance.

On Wednesday, MSO admitted it made an “error” in canceling the performance.

“While the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra maintains that a concert platform is not an appropriate stage for political comment, we acknowledge Jayson’s concerns for those in the Middle East and elsewhere,” a MSO spokesperson told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). “We recognize the strength of feelings of all parties on this matter and particularly acknowledge the dedication and commitment demonstrated by all our musicians and staff this week.”

Gillham accepted the MSO’s apology. He said in a statement to the ABC, “I hold my relationship with the MSO, its players, and audience with the highest regard and look forward to our continued working relationship in years to come.”

When MSO canceled Gillham’s appearance in Thursday’s recital, it sent an email to ticketholders explaining their position on the matter and apologizing for Gillham’s remarks. The MSO said his comments were “made completely without authority.”

“‘Witness’ was accepted for performance at the request of Mr Gillham on the basis that it was a short meditative piece,” the MSO explained. “Mr Gillham made his personal remarks without seeking the MSO’s approval or sanction. They were an intrusion of personal political views on what should have been a morning focused on a program of works for solo piano.”

“The MSO does not condone the use of our stage as a platform for expressing personal views,” it added. “The MSO understands that his remarks have caused offense and distress and offers a sincere apology … In standing for humanity and peace we seek for every one of our performances to be a welcome and safe place for all.”

A quick glance at the donors listed on the MSO website shows that the orchestra has a large number of Jewish patrons and supporters.

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