New York University’s Israeli alumni severed ties with the institution Tuesday over its failure to tackle antisemitism — and after its president allegedly played down the incendiary “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” chant as “not that bad.”
The 2,000-strong NYU Alumni Club of Israel slammed NYU president Linda Mills and told board of trustees chairman Evan Chesler that it would drop ties until the institution tackled antisemitism head-on.
The group wrote to Mills and Chesler after a series of on-campus incidents, including a junior admitting to tearing down posters of Hamas kidnapping victims and a “hostile takeover” of Bobst Library earlier this month at which a masked protester was caught on video repeatedly spitting on a banner bearing the word “Jewish.”
One group of Jewish students said they faced chants of “Hitler was right” and “gas the Jews.”
Some of the alumni held a contentious Zoom call with Mills on Nov. 1 during which, they told The Post, she said the anti-Israeli chant “from the river to the sea” was not necessarily antisemitic — and ate lunch through the meeting.
In the letter the alumni group said it wanted the chant classified as hate speech because it demands the genocide of Israel and for NYU to publicly condemn it.
The group is also demanding NYU sanction individual coeds and students groups for using hate speech — and that any faculty who take part in anti-Israel protests are disciplined or fired.
“Times like these require not just words but moral leadership and action,” the letter said.
“We, the alumni of NYU in Israel, cannot stand in silence while NYU students and faculty members chant for the annihilation of the Jewish State of Israel, and intimidate and assault Jewish students on NYU’s campus.
“Until the university can protect its Jewish students from the extreme rhetoric and violence of faculty and student-led hate groups using NYU’s name, the NYU Alumni Club of Israel suspends any cooperation and affiliation with NYU and its institutions.”
The letter comes after the Zoom call with Mills and about 20 alumni. Participants told The Post the school president appeared “blasé” was “not taking it seriously” and started by asking if people minded if she ate a salad during the call.
One alumni who requested anonymity said: “We’re talking about the worst event in the history of the Jewish people since the Holocaust and she’s eating lunch.”
Steven Aiello, who serves on the alumni group’s 10-member leadership board, said he found Mills’ behavior disruptive and disrespectful.
“I wasn’t as upset as others, but I think it was part of an overall approach that made it seem like she didn’t see any real problem to address,” Aiello, 35, told The Post. “[She] wasn’t taking this seriously at all.”
Aiello, of Tel Aviv, said two members of the leadership board had already resigned due to frustration with NYU administrators in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas.
“She was surprisingly blasé about it all,” Aiello, 35, said of Mills. “It was very strange given the audience. Felt like either she was totally oblivious about the situation or spinning it all.”
Another Israeli NYU alum said she had told the participants “some of it’s coming from social media, it’s exaggerated,” and said, “She told us it’s not as bad as you think it is. “She whitewashed the whole thing.”
And Sharon Sion Sasson, a 2003 graduate of NYU’s Stern School of Business, said Mills downplayed the frequency and severity of antisemitic incidents which have left Jewish students in fear.
“She said that ‘from the river to the sea’ could have many meanings,” said Sasson, 58. “She also said she didn’t think the students saying it understood it the way we did.”
Sasson, of Tel Aviv, said the meeting wasn’t “cooperative or action-oriented,” but appeared to be an attempt to mollify Jewish alumni. “President Mills has led talking sessions, but only firm and deliberate actions can stop this,” Sasson said.
University spokesman John Beckman told The Post NYU had not been aware of the intention to cut ties and said that it was among the first US universities to publicly condemn Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel and that it has promptly reviewed and investigated complaints of antisemitism.
“But it always saddens NYU to learn that we’ve disappointed members of our community,” Beckman said.
“However, with full respect, we would remind our alums in Israel, who no doubt have experienced excruciating pain, that NYU has been taking many steps to fight antisemitism and keep the campus safe.”
He also said that nobody had objected to Mills eating lunch on the video call and said: “This was about being famished and having an incredibly demanding job, not about disrespect.”
Beckman also referenced a photo showing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu eating fruit during a weekly cabinet meeting in January 2016 and said of Mills: “Admittedly, it might not get the Emily Post seal of approval, but this is a university president who works around the clock to keep her campus safe and who hadn’t eaten all day.”
NYU has already come under pressure over its handling of antisemitism. Three students are suing the university for allegedly leaving them “under siege” from “pervasive acts of hatred, discrimination, harassment, and intimidation” at the Greenwich Village campus.
Mills announced last week NYU it would open the Center for the Study of Antisemitism next fall.