In Wake of ‘Antisemitic Speech,’ Calls Grow for Elimination of City University of New York’s Federal Funding, Tax-Exempt Status

In the wake of what has been labeled an antisemitic speech delivered at the City University of New York’s law school earlier this month, numerous groups and individuals are calling on the institution to lose its tax-exempt status and federal funding, given the school’s advocacy for positions like the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement. Two groups established to fight antisemitism — the National Jewish Advocacy Center and the International Legal Forum — are calling on the IRS to revoke the school’s tax-exempt status due to its “clearly identifiable pattern of hosting speakers who express anti-Israel sentiments or criticize Israeli policies,” reflecting “a systematic effort to influence public opinion and shape political discourse,” according to a letter obtained by the Sun. The leaders of those respective groups, Mark Goldfeder and Arsen Ostrovsky, argue that CUNY’s overt political stances are a violation of the requirements for meeting tax-exempt status. The speech occurred on May 12 but went largely unnoticed until a video of it appeared online some two weeks later. It was delivered by Fatima Mousa Mohammad, who was elected by her classmates to give the law school commencement address. She claimed that the legal profession into which she and her colleagues are entering is “a manifestation of white supremacy” and one of many “systems of oppression to feed an empire with a ravenous appetite for destruction and violence.”Ms. Mohammad also praised her about-to-be alma mater for the student and faculty groups that issued a defense of the anti-Israel BDS movement in 2019. “Israel continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshipers, murdering the old, the young, attacking even funerals and graveyards, as it encourages lynch mobs to target Palestinian homes and businesses as it imprisons its children,” Ms. Mohammad told the crowd, to loud cheers and applause. In response to the speech, the 2022 Republican candidate for New York governor, Congressman Lee Zeldin, said that “raging antisemitism has fully consumed the City University of New York. Until the administration is overhauled and all Jewish students and faculty are welcome again, taxpayer funding must be immediately halted.”Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul condemned the speech, but fell short of calling for a suspension of the school’s state or federal funding. “If I was on that stage, when those comments were made, I would have stood up and denounced them immediately,” Mr. Adams said Wednesday. “I condemn all forms of hate speech,” Ms. Hochul said of the address. “It is divisive. It is hurtful. It is cruel. And I’m calling on everyone across the state to join with us in saying no more.”During a recent podcast appearance, Senator Cruz offered a similar assessment of CUNY. “When you have a place that becomes a vicious cesspool of racism and indoctrination, that’s no longer carrying out an educational mission,” he said of the commencement day speech. The American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists is also calling on lawyers to possibly avoid hiring CUNY graduates for their affiliation with the pro-BDS school. “A clear message has been given to Jewish students, you as a people, a race and a religion hold beliefs that are not welcome at CUNY,” the president of the legal group, Robert Garson, wrote in a letter obtained by the Sun. “We would urge members of the AAJLJ to think twice before hiring a CUNY School of Law graduate.”In an interview, Mr. Garson told the Sun that CUNY is fomenting antisemitic hatred through its actions and has violated one of the pillars of educational institutions by endorsing racism. “Jews and Jewish students have made a massive contribution to the law in the United States and yet one of the places they feel most at risk is on university campuses and especially law school campuses,” Mr. Garson said. “This should have been the happiest day of their lives, graduating from law school. Instead, they were subjected to invective and filth,” he added. Ms. Mohammad also launched invectives about the school, claiming that CUNY is “an institution that continues to fail us, that continues to train and cooperate with the fascist New York police, the military, that continues to train Israeli Defense Forces soldiers to carry out that same violence globally.”One CUNY professor, Jeffrey Lax, took to the opinion pages of the New York Post in early April to decry his school as “America’s most antisemitic university.”In his opinion piece, Mr. Lax describes the systemic replacement of Jews on campus, in tenured faculty roles, senior leadership positions, and even the student body.

In Wake of ‘Antisemitic Speech,’ Calls Grow for Elimination of City University of New York’s Federal Funding, Tax-Exempt Status

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