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US Supreme Court Declines to Hear CUNY Professors’ Case to Cut Ties With ‘Antisemitic’ Union

Pro-Hamas demonstrators, many of whom are college students, in New York City on May 11, 2024. Photo: John Lamparski via Reuters Connect

The United States Supreme Court has rejected a petition for it to hear a right to work case brought by a group of City University of New York (CUNY) professors who sued to sever ties with the public sector union which represents them and they consider antisemitic, The Algemeiner has learned from a plaintiff in the case.

“For the past three years, our clients have bravely fought for their rights while enduring tremendous pressure to stay silent,” the plaintiffs’ attorney, Nathan McGrath, president and general counsel of the Fairness Center, told The Algemeiner in a statement on Monday. “They are disappointed that the court did not take their case, but they are pleased that their litigation has exposed union officials’ actions that they consider to be antisemitic.”

The professors — Avraham Goldstein, Michael Goldstein, Frimette Kass-Shraibman, Mitchell Langbert, Jeffrey Lax, and Maria Pagano — five of whom are Jewish, resigned from CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY) after it passed a resolution during Israel’s May 2021 war with Hamas that declared solidarity with Palestinians and accused the Jewish state of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and crimes against humanity.

The professors, however, were required to remain in the union’s “bargaining unit,” due to New York State’s “Taylor Law,” which requires state public employers to bargain collectively with unions. The plaintiffs argued this amounted to a denial of their right to freedom of speech and association by forcing them to be represented in collective bargaining negotiations by an organization they claimed holds antisemitic views. Beyond the plaintiffs, 263 other professors and staff have resigned from the union as well, according to the website of the Resign.PSC campaign, which accuses the body of having “violated its mandate” by weighing in on a contentious political issue.

“The core issue in this case is straightforward: can the government force Jewish professors to accept the representation of an advocacy group they rightly consider to be antisemitic?” said the plaintiffs’ petition for writ of certiorari, a legal document that allows a higher court to review a lower court’s decision. “The answer plainly should be ‘no.’ The First Amendment [of the US Constitution] protects the rights of individuals, and especially religious dissenters, to disaffiliate themselves from associations and speech they abhor.”

A New York district judge dismissed the professors’ suit in November 2022, ruling that several previous cases have affirmed the constitutionality of compulsory union representation. In appealing the decision, the National Right to Work Foundation, as well its co-litigant, the Fairness Center, argued that the judge’s argument is incorrect. The Supreme Court’s declining to hear the case affirms that ruling, however, and sees its 6-3 conservative majority forgo a chance to issue a landmark ruling which would have gutted the power of public sector unions across the country.

“I’m certainly disappointed that the Supreme Court did not take our case, but if our openly antisemitic PSC-CUNY union thinks this fight is over, they should think again. We’re just getting started,” CUNY Law professor Jeffrey Lax told The Algemeiner. “It is outrageous that the same PSC delegate leaders who chant ‘Zionism out of CUNY’ and who virulently support BDS and the illegal, Jew-harassing campus Gaza encampments then argue that they should bargain for our terms of employment at CUNY. In reality, it’s not merely cruel and despicable, it is downright mutually exclusive to openly argue that Zionist Jews should not work at CUNY and at the same time feign to represent the interests of those same Zionist Jews, like me, in negotiating the terms of our employment.”

Allegations of antisemitism at the City University of New York have caused a burst of legal activity in recent years.

Last year, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) resolved half a dozen investigations of antisemitism on CUNY campuses, a consortium of undergraduate colleges located throughout New York City’s five boroughs.

The inquiries, which reviewed incidents that happened as far back as 2020, were aimed at determining whether school officials neglected to prevent and respond to antisemitic discrimination, bullying, and harassment. Hunter College and CUNY Law combined for three resolutions in total, representing half of all the antisemitism cases settled by OCR. Baruch College, Brooklyn College, and CUNY’s Central Office were the subjects of three other investigations.

One of the cases which OCR resolved, involving Brooklyn College, prompted widespread concern when it was announced in 2022. According to witness testimony provided by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law — which filed the complaint prompting the investigation — Jewish students enrolled in the college’s Mental Health Counseling (MCH) program were repeatedly pressured into saying that Jews are white people who should be excluded from discussions about social justice.

The badgering of Jewish students, the students said at the time, became so severe that one student said in a WhatsApp group chat that she wanted to “strangle” a Jewish classmate.

As part of an agreement with the federal agency, CUNY will, among other steps, “reopen” past internal investigations of antisemitic conduct, report to OCR on its progress, and train its employees to conduct “thorough and impartial investigations” of any bigoted conduct reported by them. CUNY also agreed to issue climate surveys, a series of questions posed to students to measure their opinions on discrimination at their school and administrators’ handling of it.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post US Supreme Court Declines to Hear CUNY Professors’ Case to Cut Ties With ‘Antisemitic’ Union first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Jewish Family Fears London Doctor’s Antisemitism Influenced Their Disabled Son’s Treatment

Dr. Ellen Kriesels at an anti-Israel rally. Photo: Screenshot

In London, an investigation has started into a doctor after the family of a disabled Jewish boy uncovered her long trail of antisemitic social media writings, another expression of an ongoing trend of antisemitic bigotry manifesting in medical settings.

Dr. Ellen Kriesels works as a consultant pediatrician at Whittington Health NHS Trust and serves as clinical lead for community pediatrics. She has been suspended pending a formal inquiry, according to British media reports. The family — who remains unnamed — cares for a son who lives with cerebral palsy and multiple other conditions. Members of the boy’s family told The Times they were “horrified” that a physician treating him had publicly claimed that “virtually every Jew has some feelings of supremacy” and that “world Jewry” was complicit in “slaughtering Palestinians.”

An example of the online postings of Dr. Ellen Kriesels, a consultant pediatrician at Whittington Health NHS Trust. Photo: Screenshot

Kriesels attended an anti-Israel rally in London on Sept. 6 carrying a placard that paired the Star of David with words such as “rape,” “steal,” and “kill.” On her X account she alleged that Israel’s actions in Gaza proved Jews “slaughter Palestinians precisely because they are not Jewish,” while writing that one should understand the Hamas terrorists killed during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel as “oppressed resistance fighters.”

The boy’s parents had already grown apprehensive after confronting Kriesels about her choice to wear a pro-Palestinian lanyard during an appointment. They filed a fresh complaint when they discovered she had failed to refer their son for specialist treatment as part of his transition to adult care. They argued the lapse, coupled with her public antisemitism, raised urgent questions about the safety of the patients under her care.

The child’s father identified himself as “Brian” but chose not to reveal his last name to The Times.

“I am horrified that according to the logic of this doctor, set out in public statements, that because my paraplegic, non-verbal son is brought up in a Jewish household that he harbors genocidal intentions and believes himself superior,” he said. “This is factually impossible and profoundly discriminatory. A professional who publicly expresses such views cannot be regarded as safe to work with vulnerable children or adults. It is deeply concerning that she was permitted to be involved in my son’s care.”

Whittington Health apologized to the family, saying the doctor was not currently scheduled to work, while the General Medical Council confirmed it had started to review the case. “Antisemitism has no place in health care,” a spokesperson said. Britain’s health department also condemned the remarks, promising zero tolerance for hate inside the National Health Service.

The United Kingdom has seen similar controversies around antisemitism’s invasions into health-care settings.

At University College London Hospitals (UCLH), posters appeared on walls with the claim that “Zionism is poison” and the accusation that the Jewish state had been “slaughtering children in Gaza.” The hospital apologized and promised it would crack down on enforcing policies intended to prevent the promotion of political ideologies to patients.

Another high-profile case involved midwife Fatimah Mohamied, who resigned from Chelsea and Westminster Hospital after UK Lawyers for Israel exposed a series of anti-Israel posts — including an Oct. 8, 2023, message celebrating “Palestinians’ right to resist” the day after the most lethal day for the Jewish people since the end of the Holocaust. Mohamied has since filed a lawsuit claiming her supervisors illegally suppressed her pro-advocacy.

The antisemitic incidents in the UK’s hospitals parallel those in other countries.

In the Netherlands, police investigated a nurse accused of threatening to administer lethal injections to Israeli patients.

In Australia, two nurses filmed themselves bragging online about refusing to treat Israelis, making throat-slitting gestures, and boasting of killing Jews. Both lost their licenses and now face criminal charges.

In Belgium, a hospital suspended one of its physicians after discovering antisemitic cartoons on his social media accounts. The posts included a cartoon showing several babies decapitated by the tip of a Star of David, along with an AI-generated image portraying Hasidic Jews as vampires poised to devour a sleeping baby. The doctor came under fire after he recently diagnosed a nine-year-old patient by listing “Jewish (Israeli)” as one of her medical problems on his report.

A December survey by the Jewish civil rights group StandWithUs found 40 percent of Jewish health-care professionals in the US had faced antisemitism at work; in Canada, the number reached 80 percent.

Kriesels’ decision to showcase her antisemitic ideology on X aligns with a notable cohort of users who feel compelled to broadcast their bigotry on the social media platform owned by billionaire Elon Musk, who currently reigns as the world’s wealthiest man.

A recent study by the Combat Antisemitism Movement shows the scale of the problem: in a random 10-minute window surveying X on Sept. 6, analysts found that 82 percent of posts using the word “Jew” promoted antisemitism.

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Faces Backlash Over Endorsement of ‘Raging Antisemite’ Zohran Mamdani for NYC Mayor

Candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Democratic New York City mayoral primary debate, June 4, 2025, in New York, US. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/Pool via REUTERS

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is facing sharp criticism after endorsing far-left state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City, with some US lawmakers describing the Democrat from Queens known for his fierce criticism of Israel as a “communist” and antisemitic.

Amid mounting pressure from progressive Democrats, Hochul endorsed Mamdani’s mayoral campaign in a New York Times op-ed on Sunday. The governor cited Mamdani’s emphasis on “public safety and making “New York City affordable.”

“We discussed the need to combat the rise of antisemitism urgently and unequivocally,” Hochul wrote. “I’ve been glad to see him meet with Jewish leaders across the city, listening and addressing their concerns directly.”

In the immediate aftermath of the endorsement, Hochul faced a withering denunciation from US Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who argued that the governor now supports a “raging antisemite communist.” She asserted that Hochul now “owns” Mamdani’s left-wing positions to “defund the police, abolish our law enforcement, abolish prisons, abolish private health-care insurance.”

Stefanik also accused Hochul of lending credibility to Mamdani’s “antisemitism, which put New York at risk and is a danger to the Jewish community in New York City.”

Stefanik, who serves on the House Republican leadership, is widely expected to run for governor of New York in 2026. Though a recent Sienna College poll shows Hochul maintaining a formidable lead over Stefanik, the margin has decreased from 23 points in June to 14 points in August.  

US President Donald Trump also ripped into Hochul for endorsing Mamdani.

“Governor Kathy Hochul of New York has endorsed the ‘Liddle Communist,’ Zohran Mamdani, running for Mayor of New York,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “This is a rather shocking development, and a very bad one for New York City. How can such a thing happen? Washington will be watching this situation very closely. No reason to be sending good money after bad!”

US Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) also chimed in, calling Hochul’s endorsement of Mamdani “a complete and total disaster for our state and for the country.”

In previous elections, Hochul has enjoyed robust support from Jewish communities in Crown Heights, Borough Park, and the Five Towns. Some observers have speculated that her embrace of Mamdani threatens to fracture her base of support among Jewish voters. 

A little-known politician before this year’s Democratic primary campaign, Mamdani is an outspoken supporter of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination.

Mamdani has also repeatedly refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, falsely suggesting the country does not offer “equal rights” for all its citizens, and promised to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York.

Mamdani also initially defended the phrase “globalize the intifada” — which references previous periods of sustained Palestinian terrorism against Jews and Israels and has been widely interpreted as a call to expand political violence — by invoking the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during World War II. However, Mamdani has since backpedaled on his support for the phrase, saying that he would discourage his supporters from using the slogan.

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Leading Nonprofit Holds ‘Antisemitism Symposium’ in Washington, DC for College Administrators

Visitors enter the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, MA on June 3, 2025. Photo: Jason Bergman/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

College administrators from across the US will amass in Washington, DC, this week for a three-day symposium on combating campus antisemitism, a sign of growing recognition that anti-Jewish hatred threatens not only Jewish students but all of higher education.

Organized by the Academic Engagement Network (AEN), which promotes academic freedom unfettered by boycotts and ideology, the event will be attended by administrators representing dozens of institutions such as Harvard University, Barnard College, and George Washington University, all of which have drawn scrutiny for responding to campus antisemitism in ways that critics — including Jewish community leaders and senior US officials — have described as insufficient if not dismissive.

Dozens of conversations and seminars will be held over the three-day “Antisemitism Symposium,” with many being led by AEN faculty, as well as staff from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and experts from the Jewish Federations of North America and the American Jewish Committee.

“College administrators are the ones tasked with recognizing and addressing antisemitism on campus, as well as setting the tone for behavioral expectations and campus culture,” Miriam Elman, executive director of AEN, said in a statement. “Today’s antisemitism, though, often takes forms that can be less familiar or harder to identify, making it all the more important to provide campus leaders with the tools, training, and support they need to recognize and respond effectively.”

She continued, “By hosting this convening and bringing these administrators together for a yearlong learning journey, we ensure they are not tackling these unique challenges in isolation, but as part of a national network committed to fostering welcoming, inclusive, and safe learning environments for all.”

The AEN symposium comes amid a concerted effort by American Jewish and allied organizations to persuade higher education leaders of the importance of taking steps to deter, or quell, antisemitism in the early weeks of the new academic year.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Jewish Federations of North America, Hillel International, and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations issued a joint statement calling for action in August, putting forth a policy framework that they say will quell antisemitism if applied sincerely and consistently. It included “enhanced communication and policy enforcement,” “dedicated administration oversight,” and “faculty accountability” — an issue of rising importance given the number of faculty accused of inciting discrimination.

“These recommendations aren’t just suggestions; they’re essential steps universities need to take to ensure Jewish students can learn without fear,” ADL chief executive officer Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement at the time. “Jewish students are being forced to hide who they are, and that’s unacceptable — we need more administrators to step up.”

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, colleges campus across the US erupted with effusions of antisemitic activity following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, an uprising which included calling for the destruction of Israel, cheering Hamas’s sexual assaulting of women as an instrument of war, and numerous of incidents of assault and harassment targeting Jewish students, faculty, and activists.

At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), anti-Zionist protesters chanted “Itbah El Yahud” at Bruin Plaza, which means “slaughter the Jews” in Arabic. At Columbia University, Jews were gang-assaulted, a student proclaimed that Zionist Jews deserve to be murdered and are lucky he is not doing so himself, and administrative officials, outraged at the notion that Jews organized to resist anti-Zionism, participated in a group chat in which each member took turns sharing antisemitic tropes that described Jews as privileged and grafting. At Harvard University, an October 2023 anti-Israel demonstration degenerated into chaos when Ibrahim Bharmal, former editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review, and Elom Tettey-Tamaklo encircled a Jewish student with a mob that screamed “Shame! Shame! Shame!” at him while he desperately attempted to free himself from the mass of bodies.

More recently, Eden Deckerhoff — a female student at Florida State University — allegedly assaulted a Jewish male classmate at the Leach Student Recreation Center after noticing his wearing apparel issued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

“F—k Israel, Free Palestine. Put it [the video] on Barstool FSU. I really don’t give a f—k,” the woman said before shoving the man, according to video taken by the victim. “You’re an ignorant son of a b—h.” Deckerhoff has since been charged with misdemeanor battery.

Majorities of Jewish students continue to describe their campuses as hostile environments.

According to a recent Spring Campus Poll conducted by The Daily Northwestern, the official campus newspaper of Northwestern University, 58 percent of Jewish students reported being subjected to antisemitism or knowing someone who has. An even higher 63.1 percent said antisemitism remains a “somewhat or very serious problem.”

Meanwhile, a Columbia University “climate survey” conducted last academic year found that 53 percent of Jewish students have been subjected to discrimination because of being Jewish, while another 53 percent reported that their friendships are “strained” because of how overwhelmingly anti-Zionist the student culture is. Additionally, 29 percent of Jewish students said they have “lost close friends,” and 59 percent, nearly two-thirds, of Jewish students sensed that they would be better off by electing to “conform their political beliefs” to those of their classmates.

Nearly 62 percent of Jewish students reported a low “feeling of acceptance” at Columbia on the basis of their religious identity, and 50 percent said that the pro-Hamas encampments which capped off the 2023-2024 academic year had a negative “impact” on their daily routines. Also, Jewish students at Columbia are more likely than their peers to report these negative feelings and experiences, followed by Muslim students.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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