{"id":133711,"date":"2023-09-11T00:04:17","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T04:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=133711"},"modified":"2023-09-09T22:05:22","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T02:05:22","slug":"jewish-discrimination-lawsuit-can-proceed-against-cuny-judge-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/jewish-discrimination-lawsuit-can-proceed-against-cuny-judge-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewish discrimination lawsuit can proceed against CUNY, judge rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A lawsuit that alleges \u201cpervasive anti-religious discrimination\u201d against Jewish professors at Kingsborough Community College can continue following a recent court ruling.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit comes from five professors at a City University of New York campus, four of whom were recently placed under investigation by CUNY for alleged &#8220;&#8216;discrimination&#8217; against BDS and radical Islamist antisemitic activists.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But Judge Gina Abadi\u2019s Aug. 23 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/cxzygg6065ok31ayjzab4\/Mot-to-Dismiss-Denial-Discrim-Case-8-23-23.pdf?rlkey=tmzttdcv900sznsn562chsgtf&amp;dl=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ruling<\/a> allows the lawsuit alleging antisemitism against CUNY, a labor union and a handful of professors to proceed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cS.A.F.E. CUNY stands with the long-suffering Observant and Zionist Jewish Kingsborough Community College professors who have endured endless harassment at what is one of CUNY\u2019s darkest hotbeds of antisemitism,\u201d the group wrote in a statement to <em>The College Fix. <\/em>\u201cWe are extremely grateful that Judge Abadi\u2019s meticulous and thorough 45-page opinion saw through the weak arguments for dismissal made by CUNY and the PSC-CUNY union.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>CUNY and the labor union denied the allegations and claims of harboring a hostile work environment in their motion to dismiss.<\/p>\n<p>S.A.F.E. CUNY&#8217;s co-founder Professor Jeffrey Lax, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, recently <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SAFECUNY\/status\/1688252013941858305\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">confirmed<\/a> via X he is one of the four professor under investigation for alleged discrimination against radical Islamists and those who support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">For those asking. This story is 100% confirmed and true. We have direct knowledge of each situation. You can absolutely run with what little detail we were able to give and that these investigations are happening at CUNY. <\/p>\n<p>We can give also give you two more details, which is\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; SAFE CUNY (@SAFECUNY) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SAFECUNY\/status\/1688252013941858305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 6, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>As for the five professors&#8217; original allegations of discrimination, the complaints include that faculty group meetings were specifically scheduled on Friday nights, which prevents the observant Jews from attending due to the Sabbath.<\/p>\n<p>A \u201cparticular segment of fellow faculty members\u201d causes the problems for the Jewish faculty, according to the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n<p>These leaders are from a faculty group called the Progressive Faculty Caucus of Kingsborough Community College, or PFC, and are also members of the New Caucus, a political party of the labor union for faculty at the community college.<\/p>\n<p>The plaintiffs claim that the PFC group \u201cdenied entry\u201d to every Jewish applicant and that the New Caucus group lobbied against other observant Jews who ran in campus elections.<\/p>\n<p>CUNY, once a favorable system for Jewish students, has been under criticism for antisemitism for years. An April <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/jewish-advocacy-group-accuses-cuny-system-of-rampant-antisemitism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a> from S.A.F.E. CUNY accused the public university system of deprioritizing the local Jewish community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCampuses started to sharply cut recruiting visits to New York City\u2019s Jewish schools, and some eventually eliminated visits to these schools entirely\u2013even those adjacent to their campuses,\u201d the report stated. \u201cAdvertising in Jewish media outlets was reduced or eliminated even on campuses with extremely dense surrounding Jewish populations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The report claimed universities are \u201cinfected\u201d and are \u201cproud champions\u201d of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which is a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. The group criticized Chancellor Felix Rodriguez\u2019s support for CAIR, which endorses \u201cboycott, divestment and sanctions\u201d against Israel.<\/p>\n<p>CUNY\u2019s law school recently attracted further criticism from Professor Lax after a student speaker, Fatima Mohammed, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/jewish-group-calls-for-removal-of-law-school-dean-over-students-anti-israel-speech\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">criticized<\/a> Israel and the United States in her <a href=\"https:\/\/rumble.com\/v2qxnr9-laws-are-white-supremacy-cuny-law-grad-says.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">graduation speech<\/a>. The\u00a0speech, originally hidden by the school, \u201cbordered on incitement to violence against Zionist Jews and Capitalists,\u201d Lax told <em>The Fix<\/em> at the time.<\/p>\n<p>The speech <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/laws-are-white-supremacy-cuny-law-grad-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">drew criticism<\/a> from across the political aisle, including from New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, and Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/oral-arguments-heard-in-first-amendment-case-over-forced-dues-by-anti-israel-union\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Oral arguments heard in First Amendment case over forced dues by \u2018anti-Israel\u2019 union<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>IMAGE: Zolnierek \/ Shutterstock<\/p>\n            <div class=\"article-truncate-control\">\n                <button class=\"show-complete-article\">\n                    Read More                <\/button>\n            <\/div>\n\n        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Judge &#8216;saw through the weak arguments for dismissal made by CUNY and the PSC-CUNY union.&#8217;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1294,"featured_media":123414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1085,1077],"tags":[2975,26637,50905],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/legallawsuitjudgecourt.Zolnierek.Shutterstock.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Oh4L-yMD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133711"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133711"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133728,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133711\/revisions\/133728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}