Every graduate of elite NYC Jewish high school avoids Columbia for first time in decades

NY Post ^ | 8/18/24 | Carl Campanile

[Libloather]

None of this year’s graduates of an elite Upper East Side Jewish high school will be attending Columbia University’s premier liberal arts college for the first time in decades at least partly because of antisemitism.

“For the first time in over 20 years, we will not have a Ramaz graduate enrolling in Columbia College,” Ramaz said in a statement Sunday to The Post.

One Ramaz student enrolled at Columbia’s school of General Studies, and three students enrolled in Columbia-affiliated Barnard College for women — but none at the college, it said.

Ramaz indicated that anti-Israel protests and hostility toward Jewish students at Columbia during the previous semester had a factor in its graduates not attending Columbia College.

“Ramaz provides as much information as possible about the situation at various colleges of interest, and we have given priority to issues surrounding the horrific rise in antisemitic instances at some schools, so that our students and their families are able to make informed decisions about which colleges are right for them,” a Ramaz rep said in an e-mail.

Rory Lancman, a top Jewish civil-rights activist whose two daughters graduated from Ramaz and who is a Columbia Law School graduate, said he would not recommend Jewish students to apply or attend Columbia at the moment because of Jew-bashing.

“Jewish families are voting with their feet and choosing colleges and universities that take antisemitism seriously,” said Lancman, a former Queens city councilman and the current director of corporate initiatives and senior counsel at the Louis Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.

“I would not recommend my daughters to apply to Columbia or other colleges that aren’t committed to protect them as Jews,” he said.

Columbia declined comment to The Post on Sunday.

[rmlew]

There are still students going to Columbia School of General Studies likely after spending a year or two studying Torah in Israel. There are also women going to Barnard. I expect the first group to decline over time, while the more liberal women going to Barnard will continue to do so.

I went to Ramaz for kindergarden, first and second grades and went to Columbia GS. 25 years ago, I knew quite a few Ramaz grads and other Orthodox students at Columbia. Most tried to stay out of politics

[SuperLuminal]

Agree...