Mick Hartley

Columbia Professor Avi Friedman's letter of resignation:

January 29, 2025

Dr. Katrina Armstrong, President, Columbia University

I am writing to submit my resignation from Columbia University. While this decision was made months ago, it ultimately became unavoidable.

Teaching at the business school has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. The Value Investing program attracts extraordinary students, and I take pride in shaping these future investors into well-rounded professionals.

The events of October 7, 2023, and the university’s subsequent response have made it impossible for my conscience to justify remaining at Columbia. Initially, I found myself making excuses: that these were misguided students, that they were merely exercising free speech, that the university was caught unprepared, and that the protesters were primarily outsiders. But these rationalizations can no longer mask what has become inexcusable and systemic.

The university’s decision to appoint Joseph Massad to teach a class on Zionism represents a complete abandonment of academic integrity and unbiased scholarship. This appointment was no oversight – it means a deliberate choice that aligns with the university’s ideology. While freedom of speech is fundamental, it must be accompanied by accountability, particularly when professors openly celebrate violence.

Your statement regarding Massad’s conduct was both inadequate and disingenuous. His comments were not mere slip-ups that, as you said, “created pain for many in our community and contributed to the deep controversy on our campus.” Rather, they represent his consistent worldview, one he continues to promote through interviews, podcasts, and articles. He stands as a celebrated figure in the intifada movement – a status that Columbia now continues to endorse.

I previously believed that maintaining a Zionist voice within the faculty was crucial. However, the university has made its position clear by platforming and empowering a known radical antisemite to indoctrinate impressionable minds. Columbia has revealed itself to be complicit in this ideological agenda. I have also come to understand that Columbia’s role as an epicenter of the intifada movement in the United States is no accident but rather the result of years of institutional cultivation from within the university and external actors. To be clear, my disappointment is with Columbia University, not the business school.

I have diligently completed Columbia’s mandatory anti-harassment training several times, and I am confident that Massad’s statements about Israel, Jews, and Zionism violate these very policies. Had I created such “pain for many and contributed to deep controversy," my dismissal would have been swift and justified. 

My post on Massad's appointment here:

Columbia University will offer a course on “Zionism” in spring 2025 taught by a professor who described terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel as “awesome.”

Titled Palestinian-Israeli POLIT/SOC, the course covers “The History of the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskala) in 19th century Europe and the development of Zionism through the current peace process between the state of Israel and the Arab states and the Palestinian national movement.” It is intended to provide an overview of the “Zionist-Palestinian” conflict, according to the course description.

The professor assigned to teach the course is Joseph Massad, who also instructs Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia. Massad is known for writing an article for The Electronic Intifada the day after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel, in which he described the event as “astounding,” “incredible,” and a “stunning victory.”