What a Columbia University board member's resignation reveals about how Jews really feel right now

Henry Sweica resigned from the Columbia University board over concerns that the university allowed pro-Hamas protesters to engage on campus.

Philippe Reines served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, a spokesperson and senior advisor to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and is currently a corporate and political consultant in Washington, D.C.

I don’t know what it’s like to be the child of Holocaust survivors. Or to lose both those parents as a teenager. Or to be married to an Israeli. Certainly, I don’t know what it’s like to be a billionaire. But this is no different from any alum turning off their monthly donation to their alma mater. Not because there’s protesting on campus.

But because of the way university administrators are handling two things: 1. Security of Jewish students, and, 2. Faculty making incendiary statements or other aggressive actions that any reasonable person would believe is outside the bounds of their positions and employment. Whether law firms and employees should be blackballing student protesters is one thing. (Though I also think that is a reaction borne of fear more than retribution.) But faculty is another. It’s resulting in many major donors concluding the recipients of their donations are exhibiting poor judgment and are undeserving, often after making their appeals in private.