NYC college accused of terminating Jewish professors amid ‘antisemtic hate’ on campus: lawsuit

Queens College in New York City has been accused of removing Jewish professors from its accounting department and failing to adequately respond to a surge of antisemitic incidents on campus, according to a lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court.
The legal action, brought by longtime adjunct professor Helen Schwalb, claims the school deliberately declined to reappoint six Jewish educators in May 2023 while retaining younger, non-Jewish faculty with lower performance ratings.
Schwalb, 66, who has taught at the City University of New York school since 2012, alleges that the college aimed to purge Jewish staff from the department, according to The New York Post. She claims she was assigned two fully enrolled courses for the summer, but the classes were instead given to other instructors she described as less qualified.
The complaint asserts that the dismissals took place amid an atmosphere of rising antisemitism at Queens College, which the institution allegedly failed to address following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror group-led massacre in Israel and the ensuing Israeli military offensive in Gaza.
According to court filings, the school "repeatedly" failed to act against a barrage of antisemitic hate speech and violent incidents that emerged on campus after the attacks.
In her filing, Schwalb noted that the only remaining Jewish faculty in the accounting department were tenured professors in their 70s and 80s, expected to retire soon. She is seeking unspecified damages for alleged employment discrimination.
Queens College cited enrollment declines and budgetary constraints as reasons for the staffing decisions. A spokesperson told the newspaper that enrollment in the accounting department had fallen by 39% between 2020 and 2024, including an 18% drop from 2022 to 2023.
The Queens College case comes as other CUNY campuses also face legal challenges and scrutiny over alleged antisemitism.
At Hunter College, a separate civil rights lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court by Dr. Leah Garrett, chair of the Jewish Studies Center, alleges that university leaders permitted an increasingly hostile environment for Jewish students and staff after the Hamas attack.
Garrett's complaint accuses CUNY-Hunter officials of allowing demonstrators to display graphic posters on campus, including images of bloodied Stars of David and slogans calling for Zionists to be expelled. She also said that swastikas appeared on posters depicting Israeli hostages and that school administrators cited bureaucratic and legal constraints when she asked them to remove the imagery.
Hunter College has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, while the U.S. Department of Justice submitted a statement of interest in support of the professor last week.
"The First Amendment does not prevent CUNY Hunter from regulating material campus disruptions that may contribute to a hostile work environment under Title VII," the filing reads.
Last week, anti-Israel protests at Brooklyn College ended in clashes with police after demonstrators erected a tent encampment and disrupted final exams. The incident drew condemnation from local lawmakers, who demanded disciplinary action from the CUNY administration.
In March, a federal civil rights complaint alleged that Jewish students at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, were advised to hide their religious identity after being attacked with red paint, subjected to antisemitic slurs and theft, and left unprotected by campus authorities. According to the complaint, the incidents occurred amid anti-Israel protests, and university administrators failed to intervene or take appropriate steps to ensure the students' safety.
"While an increasing number of schools recognize that their Jewish students are being targeted both for their religious beliefs and due to their ancestral connection to Israel, and are taking necessary steps to address both classic and contemporary forms of anti-Semitism, some shamefully continue to turn a blind eye," Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus said in a statement provided to The Christian Post.
Last August, six Jewish CUNY professors, five of whom are observant, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to be released from representation by the Professional Staff Congress union, which they accused of antisemitism. The professors argued that the union's statements — labeling Israel an "apartheid state" and defending anti-Israel protests at Columbia University — were in direct conflict with their beliefs, yet New York law compelled them to remain under its representation.