Why Jewish students aren’t celebrating Columbia’s antisemitism deal with the Trump administration

Men wave an Israeli flag as pro-Palestinian supporters continue to demonstrate from a protest encampment on the campus of Columbia University on April 29, 2024. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

By Arno Rosenfeld July 24, 2025

For some Jewish college students, the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to campus antisemitism came as a relief after two years of what they perceived as weak action by elite universities and the federal government.

Fewer are cheering after the White House signed a $221 million settlement with Columbia University on Wednesday night that represents the culmination of a maximum leverage campaign against the Ivy League school. “This particular settlement agreement is going to be a template for other universities to follow,” Linda McMahon, the education secretary, said on Fox News.

Columbia’s leadership only agreed to the deal after the administration imposed one of the most severe sanctions available against a private university, yanking almost all federal funding from Columbia — more than $400 million per year — in March on the basis that it was violating civil rights laws.

That move was meant to pressure Columbia into making significant concessions. But as details of the settlement emerged in recent weeks, some of the staunchest critics of antisemitism at Columbia castigated the Trump administration for softening its approach.

“We need accountability, not appeasement!” Eden Yadegar, a recent Columbia graduate, wrote on X last week after initial details of the agreement leaked.

Leo Terrell, who runs the Trump administration’s antisemitism task force, seemed to echo this sentiment. “I will not ‘sellout’ Jewish Americans,” he posted online one day after the leak. “NO DEALS!”

When the settlement agreement was officially released late Wednesday, the official reaction from many pro-Israel Jewish leaders at Columbia was one of cautious optimism.

“Getting federal funding back and committing to the work of positive reform within the university is a good thing,” Elisha Baker, co-chair of the pro-Israel Aryeh club on campus, wrote on social media.

Yadegar said in a text message that the deal was “a starting point” and that she was “holding her breath to see if and how things will change.”

In addition to the fine, which the school will pay over three years, the deal ends several federal investigations into Columbia in exchange for the university taking a variety of steps to address campus antisemitism, most of which it had already announced.

The settlement codified a March announcement that the university would shift responsibility for student discipline from the faculty senate to the provost’s office in a major win for those who were concerned that the school had failed to enforce its code of conduct against students who participated in the tent encampments and protests in spring 2024.

But behind the scenes, some Jewish leaders at Columbia are smarting over the fact that the Trump administration backed off other major changes that it had initially floated, including forcing out certain pro-Palestinian faculty members or placing the Middle Eastern studies department into academic receivership in which it would lose control of many of its affairs.

“Only when the heads of the indoctrinators roll will we know that Columbia is serious about making substantive changes,” Documenting Jew Hatred On Campus, a right-leaning group focused on Columbia, said in a statement, adding that the deal only addressed “a few symptoms” of the school’s problems.

The deal also leaves Columbia’s search for a permanent president — it’s currently on its second interim leader in the last 18 months — in the school’s hands, backing off a previous plan to give the federal government influence over that process.

“Reforming Columbia for the better is a long-term endeavor that could never be covered in one deal,” said Baker, “and need not be overly intertwined with the government.”

The agreement codified a series of steps that Columbia had previously announced as part of its negotiations with the Trump administration, including measures that outraged Jewish students on campus who had supported the pro-Palestinian demonstrations: creating a campus police force with the power to arrest students and adopting a controversial definition of antisemitism that includes anti-Zionism.

Aharon Dardik, an Israeli-American student at Columbia, said that anyone who thought the settlement didn’t go far enough would “rather see higher education crumble than see a successful movement for Palestinian rights on campus.”

“They’re a tiny, tiny minority of people at Columbia because if you’re on the ground, if you see what’s happening — it’s not that there’s no antisemitism at all; there is — but the antisemitism that exists is sparse,” said Dardik, a rising senior who founded a Jews for Ceasefire club on campus.

Roughly half of Jewish students at Columbia reported experiencing discrimination during the 2023-2024 school year, when the protests against Israel were at their peak, while 36% said they had not been discriminated against.

Fifty percent of Jewish students said they either participated in or supported marches in favor of Israel, while 22% protested in support of Palestinians.

Even Columbia students who viewed the protests as antisemitic and believed the school and the Biden administration were not responding forcefully enough expressed apprehension about the Trump administration’s approach, which included the arrest of protest leader Mahmoud Khalil by immigration authorities amid a broader crackdown on immigrants.

In addition to changes directly focused on Jewish students, including requiring Columbia to appoint a liaison to work exclusively on addressing antisemitism, the agreement also banned the school from engaging in affirmative action or “unlawful DEI goals.”

“This is a monumental victory for conservatives who have wanted to do things on these elite campuses for a long time,” McMahon said during her Fox News appearance Thursday. “Our campuses are now what they should be — they’re places for debate, they’re places for education, they’re not places for left-leaning riots and antisemitism.”