NYU Settles Antisemitism Case

NYU Settles Antisemitism Case

We have been following the antisemitism lawsuits filed in federal court against several universities that have been hotbeds of antisemitic activity before and especially after the horrific events in Israel on October 7, 2023:

• NYU Slammed with Massive Antisemitism Lawsuit
• Jewish Student Files Lawsuit Against Columbia for Failing ‘to Maintain a Safe Learning Environment’; see also Orthodox Jewish Student Files Lawsuit Against Columbia Over ‘Virulently Hostile’ Environment; and see Third Ivy League School [i.e. Columbia] Hit with Massive Antisemitism Lawsuit
• ANALYSIS – Harvard Jewish Student Antisemitism Lawsuit
• UPenn Hit With Antisemitism Lawsuit

The NYU case was especially egregious, with the following allegations appearing in the Complaint’s “Preliminary Statement“:

The age-old virus of antisemitism is alive and well at New York University. This case arises from NYU’s egregious civil rights violations that have created a hostile educational environment in which plaintiffs and other Jewish NYU students have been subjected to pervasive acts of hatred, discrimination, harassment, and intimidation. For years, NYU—acutely aware of ongoing and disgraceful acts of anti-Jewish bigotry—has reacted with, at best, deliberate indifference, refusing to enforce its own anti-discrimination and conduct policies that it readily applies to protect other targets of bigotry, and instead fostering an environment in which students and faculty members are permitted to repeatedly abuse, malign, vilify, and threaten Jewish students with impunity. Regularly confronted with such genocidal chants as, “Hitler was right,” “gas the Jews,” “death to kikes,” and “from the river to the sea,” and other abuse, plaintiffs not only have been deprived of the ability and opportunity to fully and meaningfully participate in NYU’s educational and other programs, but they have suffered and have been put at severe risk of extreme emotional and physical injury.

[emphasis added]

The other unique aspect of the NYU case is that NYU Professor Andrew Ross moved to intervene in the case, fearing that he might be labeled “antisemitic”: NYU Prof Moves to Intervene in NYU Antisemitism Case – Fears Could Be Wrongly Labeled “Antisemitic”

That motion to intervene, as well as a motion to dismiss filed by NYU, were scheduled for a hearing on July 9, 2024 in federal court in Manhattan, but on July 8, 2024, the court posted the following somewhat cryptic item to the docket:

ORDER: The Court has received joint notification from the parties that they have settled the above-captioned case and will promptly file a joint stipulation of settlement. Accordingly, the oral argument scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 9, 2024, is canceled. SO ORDERED. (Signed by Judge Loretta A. Preska on 7/8/2024) (tg) (Entered: 07/08/2024)

Then, on July 9th, the parties filed the following joint stipulation of dismissal:

I must say I was quite surprised when I learned of the dismissal, as I expected this case to go to trial, as I predicted in an earlier post:

These three lawsuits [against NYU, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania] have “legs” as we say in the business; i.e. they’re not going to dismissed or settled without major, campus-changing actions taken by each university, which seems impossible at this point.

So has NYU undertaken “major, campus-changing actions”? We don’t know, because the exact terms of the settlement agreement are confidential to the parties involved, but some information has been released.

U.S. News has the story: NYU Settles Lawsuit Filed by 3 Jewish Students Who Complained of Pervasive Antisemitism:

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.