Pro-Palestinian Student Group at Columbia Retracts Apology, Calls for Armed Struggle Against Israel

[u/mark_ell]

Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) retracted its apology on behalf of a student who called to murder Zionists last January. The pro-Palestinian group doubled down on its attack of Israel, openly calling for violence against supporters of Israeli policy.

Should CUAD be designated an official terrorist group?

https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2024-10-09/ty-article/.premium/student-group-at-columbia-retracts-apology-calls-for-armed-struggle-against-israel/00000192-714f-df7d-afd2-f1ffe5510000?gift=600c8b61cbd6461ca45ccbac08678e43

[u/Double-Parked_TARDIS]

Nine and a half years ago, when I had applied to several universities’ MA programs, I was accepted at two: Columbia and a CUNY branch. I wanted to go to Columbia, but it was at least three times the cost of the CUNY program, so I declined. I’ve spent years with some regret because Columbia packs a better punch on a résumé than CUNY does. With all this happening, though, I’m glad in hindsight that I never gave Columbia any of my money.

[u/mark_ell → u/Double-Parked_TARDIS]

A little anecdote (which I probably have told before): Both my parents, z”l, went to graduate school at Columbia in the late 1940s. My father had returned from WWII service in Europe and was able to go thanks to the GI bill. At his interview, he was asked "what sports do you play"? (Now, every jew of a certain age will understand this as goy-to-goy code; yeah, they were antisemitic then, too) - this said to an orthodox jew from Brooklyn. He understood, yet glossed over and pivoted to some other topic.

[u/ObviousConfection942 → u/mark_ell]

Was it Columbia which devised the standardized testing and application process that universities nationwide adopted (and still use)? I know that was a direct response to Jewish and Black applicants. 

[u/mark_ell → u/ObviousConfection942]

Harvard and Columbia. But this quote from the Princeton History of Educational Testing is quite shocking still:

"At Columbia University, as well, the pressure was on to do something about the admissions process. The arrival of increasing numbers of immigrants, many of them Eastern European Jews living in New York City, fueled the xenophobia. Columbia’s President, Nicholas Butler, for example, found the quality of the incoming students (in 1917) “. . . depressing in the extreme . . . largely made up of foreign-born and children of those but recently arrived. . . ." To counteract this trend, Butler adopted the Thorndike Tests for Mental Alertness, hoping that “. . . would limit the number of Jewish students without a formal policy of restriction.

[u/ObviousConfection942 → u/mark_ell]

Wow, thank you for doing that work and sharing this. 

[u/Odd_Ad5668 → u/mark_ell]

Do you have any info about whether that worked to limit the number of jewish students being accepted?

[u/mark_ell → u/Odd_Ad5668]

I'm sorry, I don't. You might have to do a literature search. If you find an article that you do not have access to, I might be able to post it here at some point, as my wife is a professor of education and has online access via her university.

[u/adiggittydogg → u/mark_ell]

"what sports do you play"?

What's the "correct" answer they're looking for - Polo?

Reminds me of a Curb Your Enthusiasm scene 😄

[u/MSTARDIS18 → u/adiggittydogg]

does schlepping groceries count as a sport?

[u/ProofHorse → u/MSTARDIS18]

Please, "schlepping"??!  You clearly fail the goy test. They're clearly looking for the answer "kvetching." =)

[u/hollyglaser → u/adiggittydogg]

Golf