HOWARD KURTZ: Columbia’s turning point? Arrests, anti-Jewish harassment shut down campus [Video]

There were only remote classes at Columbia University on Monday as protests, clashes and arrests rendered the campus a cauldron of tension and fear.

A surge in antisemitism, attacks and harassment has made life extremely uncomfortable for Jewish students at colleges across the country, and Columbia has become ground zero after police arrested more than 100 protesters there late last week.

It’s hard to fathom that the gated Upper Manhattan campus, so familiar to me from my days earning a master’s in journalism there, felt compelled to keep students away as the Biden White House condemned anti-Jewish hatred heading into the first night of Passover.

I believe we’re at a long-overdue turning point. Just four months ago, Harvard President Claudine Gay and Penn President Liz Magill couldn’t bring themselves to denounce antisemitism at a congressional hearing, which ultimately cost them their jobs. Now Columbia President Minouche Shafik, under pressure after a similar hearing, has cracked down on demonstrators who break the rules.

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