Jewish activists are turning on the Jewish Community Relations Council for honoring CUNY board chairman Bill Thompson with its annual “Public Service Award” at its spring gala Monday night — amid complaints of campus antisemitism and hate speech at the public university.
The JCRC — self described as the primary Jewish communications agency in the city — is bestowing Thompson with its award at the New York Historical Society just weeks after an incendiary commencement speech delivered by CUNY Law School grad Fatima Mousa Mohammed that Jews decried as antisemitism.
Thompson, a former city comptroller and mayoral candidate, himself co-signed a statement belatedly slamming Mohammed’s tirade as “hate speech.”
“This is an outrageous insult and obsequious act against the Jewish community. No one in the CUNY administration should be honored by JCRC,” said former 15-year CUNY board trustee Jeffrey Wiesenfeld.
Wiesenfeld said he was particularly infuriated that CUNY Law School Dean Sudha Setty and other administrators on the stage during the graduation ceremony not only did not challenge or denounce Mohammed’s speech, they were seen applauding it.
“Billy Thompson and the chancellor didn’t fire the law school dean who applauded that jihadist speech to destroy the Jews in Israel. Let’s call it what it was,” he said.
Some activists said they would protest outside the JCRC gala.
“Jews are under attack@CUNY. Where is JCRC?,” said a protest flier put out by the group Yad Yamin NY.
JCRC issued a statement defending its award to Thompson for his lifetime of public service, an honor decided on well before the recent CUNY controversy.
Gov. Kathy Hochul just reappointed Thompson to another term.
“JCRC-NY is proud to honor Bill Thompson, Jr. with this year’s Public Service Award. Bill has been a friend to the City of New York and to JCRC-NY for over three decades. From his two terms as City Comptroller to his five terms as President of the NYC Board of Education, and his service as Chairman of CUNY’s Board of Trustees, he’s been a dedicated advocate for diversity, innovation, and progress across the public and private sectors,” the statement said.
“JCRC-NY’s long standing relationship with CUNY, the largest urban public college system in the United States, goes back more than three decades through successive administrations. We believe that continued engagement with CUNY’s leadership is critical to advancing the security, interests, and values of the New York Jewish community on campus. Antisemitism is a pervasive hatred, impacting many parts of society including college campuses. As such, we work in partnership with CUNY in its efforts to create a better environment for the Jewish campus community, and we monitor their progress and support them in achieving this goal.”
JCRC said it wasn’t giving CUNY’s leadership a pass on addressing antisemitism.
The group issued a statement slamming Mohammed’s speech for spewing “antisemitic tropes.”
While it praised the statement that Thompson and CUNY’s board of trustee weeks later put out calling Mohammed’s comments “hate speech”, it expressed disappointment they didn’t call it antisemitism.
“Once again, we urge@CUNY to revise its commencement speech guidelines before next year’s graduation,” JCRC said.
Thompson, who has traveled to Israel with JCRC members, declined comment.
During her May 12 commencement address, Mousa Mohammed accused Israel of “indiscriminate” murder, encouraging “lynch mobs” and lauded resistance to “Zionism around the world.”
“Israel continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshipers, murdering the old, the young, attacking even funerals and graveyards… our silence is no longer acceptable,” she said.
The future lawyer slammed CUNY for continuing “to train and cooperate with the fascist NYPD, the military.”
She also urged her fellow graduates to “fight against capitalism, racism, imperialism, and Zionism around the world.”
Even before the latest commencement controversy, the state Division of Human Rights opened a bombshell probe into whether CUNY’s School of Law discriminated against Jews when its faculty council passed a resolution last year supporting the BDS movement targeting Israel.
Last year, the City Council held a hearing on campus antisemitism. CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez was roundly criticized for not personally testifying, though he has since established programs to address Jew hatred and other forms of discrimination.