Illustrative: Pro-Hamas activists. Photo: New Deal Coalition/Instagram

A new lawsuit alleges that Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) in Teaneck, New Jersey punished a Jewish professor and volunteer chaplain for complaining about antisemitic discrimination that officials allegedly refused to quell even as it resulted in violations of civil rights.

“After voicing opposition to the antisemitic discriminatory speech promulgated and antisemitic abuse directed at Jews during a defendant-approved, sponsored, or sanctioned campus event, defendant FSU suspended and effectively terminated plaintiff,” court documents filed in a Bergen County superior court say. “Defendant FDU’s conduct was retaliatory, discriminatory, and violated state law.”

On Monday, Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) told The Algemeiner that the claims are false and will be discredited in court.

“We categorically deny the allegations of antisemitism put forward in this lawsuit, and the facts will show that our students, faculty, and staff have been able to freely study and work at the university without experiencing the type of discriminatory incidents that have been reported elsewhere in the country,” it said in a statement. “The university has not and will not tolerate illegal discrimination against our Jewish community or others based on religion, national origin, or other protected status under law.”

It added, “We believe that the university has consistently fulfilled its mission to promote a respectful forum for the expression and discussion of different viewpoints in a civil manner that does not interfere with the right of any person to study and work at the university, and we will proceed to defend this action.”

The plaintiff, Ira Jaskoll, says his plight began following the explosion of antisemitic hatred set off by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, when masses of FDU students began holding anti-Israel events he describes as hateful and calling for the destruction of Israel. During one such event, an activist from a local anti-Israel group uttered hate speech accusing Israel of “genocide” and “apartheid,” a message allegedly promoted with a stamp of approval from an administrative office which supervises expressive activities.

Jaskoll took umbrage at the speaker’s remarks and assumed the right to express his own views on the matter during the event, triggering his being involuntarily removed from the venue. A cascade of meetings, complaints, and counter-complaints followed this incident, with Jaskoll charging that he had been a victim of flagrantly antisemitic conduct. University officials allegedly disregarded his telling of what transpired and, after declining to file disciplinary charges against anyone responsible for organizing the anti-Israel event, “paused” his serving as a chaplain for Jewish students.

According to the lawsuit, the “pause” would have been lifted had Jaskoll agreed to apologize for disrupting the anti-Israel event, but he declined to do so, citing his conviction that apologizing for someone else’s discriminatory conduct would be immensely unjust. He has not been restored to the position to this day. The complaint alleges that he is “effectively” terminated and entitled to damages, both punitive and compensatory.

Jaskoll is not the first university employee to allege that school officials permitted the escalation of hostile and discriminatory activities.

Earlier this month, a male researcher came forward to join a lawsuit that the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed in June against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). According to court documents shared with The Algemeiner, he endured psychological torment, having been swarmed by “masked” pro-Hamas activists clamoring for the destruction of Israel and students who “interrogated” his Jewish identity, pelting him with slurs and threatening to “prevent” his reproducing to bring “more Jewish children” into the world.

While administrators received formal complaints describing in harrowing detail the severity of the bullying being perpetrated against the student, they allegedly took no action. Left to stand alone, the student resorted to concealing his Jewishness on a campus which purports to be one of the most inclusive in the country.

A new survey released this month found that anti-Zionist staff and faculty have accelerated the antisemitism crisis on US college campuses by politicizing the classroom, promoting anti-Israel bias, and even discriminating against Jewish colleagues.

The actions by faculty provided an academic pretext for the relentless wave of antisemitic incidents of discrimination and harassment which pro-Hamas activists have perpetrated against Jewish and Israeli members of campus communities since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel, according to the survey.

Released earlier this month as the result of a joint partnership by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Academic Engagement Network (AEN), the survey of “Jewish-identifying US-based faculty members” found that 73 percent of Jewish faculty witnessed their colleagues engaging in antisemitic activity, and a significant percentage named the Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) group as the force driving it.

Of those aware of an FSJP chapter on their campus, the vast majority of respondents reported that the chapter engaged in anti-Israel programming (77.2 percent), organized anti-Israel protests and demonstrations (79.4 percent), and endorsed anti-Israel divestment campaigns (84.8 percent).

Additionally, 50 percent of respondents said that anti-Zionist faculty have established de facto, or “shadow,” boycotts of Israel on campus even in the absence of formal declaration or recognition of one by the administration. Among those who reported the presence of such a boycott, 55 percent noted that departments avoid co-sponsoring events with Jewish or pro-Israel groups and 29.5 percent said this policy is also subtly enacted by sabotaging negotiations for partnerships with Israeli institutions. All the while, such faculty fostered an environment in which Jewish professors were “maligned, professionally isolated, and in severe cases, doxxed or harassed” as they assumed the right to determine for their Jewish colleagues what constitutes antisemitism.

“Colleges and universities are meant to be open, safe, learning environments where faculty and students alike feel comfortable sharing ideas and having open discourse,” AEN executive director Miriam Elman said in a statement. “It’s disturbing, but perhaps unsurprising, that Jewish and Zionist faculty on campuses across the country are experiencing antisemitic hostility and retaliation for their beliefs.”

She continued, “Administrators must address these issues head-on and take meaningful action to protect the flow of free ideas and open inquiry on their campuses, or their institutions will suffer for generations to come.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.