Bared Columbia professor says fight is for ‘Western values’

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TORONTO – Shai Davidai, an assistant professor of business at Columbia University, was temporarily banned from campus this month for what the school says he “repeatedly harassed and intimidated university employees.” His social media posts publicly show videos of him asking questions administrators, why they allowed anti-Semitic protests on campus.

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But the 41-year-old Israeli told an audience of 600 people at Toronto’s Beth Tikvah synagogue on Sunday that the university had yet to provide evidence of their claim.

Davidai was on a speaking tour that included a stop in Winnipeg on Tuesday to share the story of how he became one of the faces of the fight against anti-Semitism on campus and offer his advice on the fight for liberal values. The talks were organized by the advocacy group Tafsik.

According to Davidai, he was the “little problem” that the Manhattan school could eliminate more easily than large groups of haters.

He fixes the catalyst on October 7, 2024, a commemorative service organized by Jewish students marking the anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel. What he referred to as “pro-Hamas” students and teachers staged a protest against it, holding signs that read “Long live the Al Aqsa flood” and “peace and glory to our martyrs,” he said at the talk in Toronto.

Davidai claims he was among anti-Israel protesters while filming, as he was elbowed and kicked. His goal, he said, was to expose the administration, which he believes should be held accountable. The stunt had two results: Two million people saw the videos, and his lawyers called him to say the university had banned him from campus.

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“Think about it,” he said incredulously. While the people were “openly supporting Hamas,” countering a memorial service with Jewish students, “their first concern is to get me off their campus.”

“My goal is to change the university; if it’s through the court of public opinion, or if it’s through the court of law, I’ll do whatever it takes, but I’m not trying to be a provocateur. I’m trying to change the system,” said the assistant professor of management at Columbia Business School.

He told the Toronto audience that “being peaceful and being non-violent is not being submissive. That’s a big difference.” He said he “never crossed the line to break the peace.”

Columbia did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment by deadline.

In a statement provided to Fox News Digital, the university confirmed his ban from campus and attributed it to his actions since October 7, 2024. However, no further details were provided regarding his actions. Columbia supported Davidai’s right to freedom of speech and expression, according to university spokeswoman Samantha Slater, who also told Fox that his return to campus is conditional on completing training on university policies.

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Davidai became a public figure shortly after his impassioned speech on October 18, 2023, outdoors on Columbia’s campus to about three dozen students. He criticized American universities for being a haven for “pro-terrorist student organizations” and expressed fear for the safety of his own children and Jewish students. The 10-minute video went viral, attracting about 15 million hits and significant media attention, he said.

He said his eyes were opened on October 12, 2023, when 150 Jewish students held a vigil, holding up posters of kidnapped Israelis. They remained silent for 21 minutes – one second for each person killed by Hamas. But in front of the vigil were about 800 students and teachers “all masked, wearing kefiyeh” and shouting “globalize the intifada” and “there is only one solution, the intifada revolution”.

“At that moment, something changed in me,” he said. “I could see that this was hate.”

Separating the two groups was a New York police line — the first time since the Vietnam War that they had been brought onto campus, he believes.

In the weeks and months that followed, the university would gain notoriety among critics as a flashpoint for being inhospitable to Jewish students. The issue of the university’s handling of anti-Semitism became even more public when its president, Minouche Shafik, resigned in August 2024 following her testimony before the US House Committee on Education. Reports say that three Columbia deans had been removed a week earlier for engaging in anti-Semitic texts.

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Administrators, Davidai said, should be held accountable for the teachers who indoctrinate students, year after year, decade after decade.

The problem becomes more acute when students are taught to avoid opposing viewpoints, he said.

“On the other side, it’s the ideology of non-engagement” with those who disagree, he told the Post. It is based on the concept of “anti-normalization”.

“That’s why they protest against any Jewish or Israeli speaker, even if it’s a physics lecture by a famous Israeli physicist. Because it normalizes the existence of a Jew in Israel.”

At that moment something changed in me. I could see that this was hate

But it is clear: he does not want to silence the teachers; he only demands “equal treatment”, which for him means treating anti-Semitism like hatred against any other group.

For anti-Jewish hatred to be most effectively combated, non-Jewish allies need to speak out, he told the Post. “You also tell their haters, ‘you’re messing with them, you’re messing with us all.’

He suggested that non-Jewish university graduates should pull their donations “en masse” until anti-Semitism is dealt with on campus. “This is when the university is going to start saying, ‘Oh, we’ve got a problem here,’ because it’s hit them where it hurts,” he told the Post.

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He would also like people to call their politicians and ask them what they are doing about anti-Semitism – regardless of whether they have many Jewish voters.

That said, anti-Semitism is only part of the battle, he insisted.

“It’s about Western values. Do we support the rights of all minorities or do we not support the rights of all minorities? Are we for the people who wave the Canadian flag or the people who burn the Canadian flag?” he told the Post.

“If tomorrow Canada gets rid of all its Jews, do you think the protests will end? Absolutely not. The protesters tell you they are not just against Israel. They are not only against Jewish collective life. I am against a certain way of life. If you value that way of life, you should be concerned.”

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