Prof who charged CUNY with antisemitism is exonerated after discrimination allegation

CUNY students and faculty hold a protest in 2021 demanding that the university system divest from Israel. Photo by Getty Images

By Lauren Markoe October 6, 2023

The City University of New York has exonerated Jeffrey Lax, a Jewish professor whom a colleague accused of discrimination — and who has himself accused the university system of fomenting antisemitism.

Lax shared on social media an email he received Thursday from the president of Kingsborough Community College, the branch of CUNY where he teaches business, informing him of “a lack of sufficient evidence” to show that his actions violated university policies.

Lax had been accused of discrimination based on race, gender and immigration status by Lili Shi, a professor who, according to her CUNY bio, teaches intercultural communications on the Brooklyn campus. The particulars of her allegations have not been made public, but appear to have included cyberbullying.

Shi has expressed support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign against Israel, which Lax considers antisemitic. She did not immediately respond Friday to an email requesting comment.

‘I did nothing wrong’

Lax tweeted that he was “immensely relieved” by the investigation’s findings, and called it retaliation over his own efforts to call out discrimination against Zionist Jews at CUNY. Lax heads the pro-Israel group Students and Faculty for Equality at CUNY.

“I did nothing wrong,” Lax wrote in his tweet. “All I did was stand up to antisemitism.”

His college sent the following when asked to respond to Lax’s accusations: “Kingsborough Community College is committed to a diverse and inclusive community where students, faculty and staff feel safe, welcome, and free to pursue their studies and their work.” 

CUNY enrolls 260,000 students across 25 campuses, and has been in recent years at the center of several controversies involving allegations of antisemitism, many of which have been rooted in anti-Israel activism.

Lax, in a New York Post op-ed in April titled “How CUNY became America’s most anti-Semitic university” charged that the university has purposefully rid its senior leadership of Jews. 

Lax has also charged his union with antisemitism. He and five other CUNY professors in January filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the the Professional Staff Congress in January, accusing it of forcing them to accept its representation, even though it had taken, in their view, antisemitic pro-Israel stands.

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