RSS
Acting Columbia President Claire Shipman Reportedly Apologizes for Urging Ouster of Jewish Trustee
Acting Columbia University President Claire Shipman speaks during commencement ceremony on May 21, 2025. Photo: Jeenah Moon via Reuters Connect.
Columbia University interim president Claire Shipman has reportedly apologized for urging the replacement of a Jewish trustee with “an Arab” during the 2023-2024 academic year, a time when the school was being rocked by a rise in antisemitic incidents and militant anti-Israel activism on the campus.
At the time, Shipman served as the co-chair of Columbia’s board of trustees, a position which afforded her large influence over the direction of the university.
As first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, Shipman disparaged Jewish trustee Shoshana Shendelman, an outspoken critic of campus antisemitism, as “extraordinarily unhelpful” and a “mole” in a series of emails to board vice-chair Wanda Holland Greene and other colleagues.
“We need to get somebody from the middle east [sic] or who is Arab on our board,” wrote Shipman, who was selected in March to be the university’s fourth president since 2023.
“The things I said in a moment of frustration and stress were wrong,” Shipman said on Wednesday in a leaked email obtained by the Jewish Insider, the outlet reported. “They do not reflect how I feel. I have apologized directly to the person named in my texts, and I am apologizing now to you.”
“I have tremendous respect and appreciation for that board member, whose voice on behalf of Columbia’s Jewish community is critically important,” Shipman continued in the email “to several members of the campus community,” according to the news site. “I should not have written those things, and I am sorry. It was a moment of immense pressure, over a year and a half ago, as we navigated some deeply turbulent times. But that doesn’t change the fact that I made a mistake. I promise to do better.”
Lenny Gold, producer of the campus antisemitism documentary “The Blind Spot” called for Shipman’s resignation in a statement to The Algemeiner.
“It’s a sad, sobering reminder of the pervasiveness of the evil of indifference and ignorance at the highest levels of academia regarding the antisemitism faced by so many Jewish students on American campuses today, and how far we still must go to eradicate a prejudice that was unthinkable here not that long ago,” Gold said. “Shame on Ms. Shipman and Columbia if she doesn’t resign now. There must be consequences for this behavior, as I assume there would be if it was aimed at any other group (or the member of any other group) protected by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
Shipman “was right to apologize,” said Jonathan Schulman, executive director of The Jewish Majority, a nonprofit which studies the Jewish experience in the US.
“Columbia University has a large, proudly pro-Israel Jewish student and alumni base,” Schulman told The Algemeiner. “Referring to a board member who reflects those values as a ‘mole,’ on the very same day that students could hear chants of ‘Long live the intifada,’ on campus, demonstrates a staggering insensitivity.”
Last month, Columbia University’s Task Force on Antisemitism released a “campus climate” survey which found that Jewish students remain exceedingly uncomfortable attending the institution.
According to its results, 53 percent of Jewish students said they 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. Meanwhile, 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 an “impact” on their daily routines. Also, Jewish Columbia students are more likely than their peers to report these negative feelings and experiences.
Columbia University also recently settled a lawsuit brought by a Jewish student at the School of Social Work who accused faculty of unrelenting antisemitic bullying and harassment.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Acting Columbia President Claire Shipman Reportedly Apologizes for Urging Ouster of Jewish Trustee first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
RSS
Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
RSS
Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.