‘Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous’: White House responds to chaos at Columbia

President Joe Biden warned on Sunday of an "alarming surge of Antisemitism" in a statement tied to the approaching Jewish holiday of Passover but with clear reference to highly charged student protests at Columbia University.

"Silence is complicity," Biden's statement read. "Even in recent days, we’ve seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews. This blatant Antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous — and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country."

The president's statement was formally to mark the religious holiday that begins on Monday. But it was notable for its unambiguous political overtones.

"My commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel, and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad," said Biden at one point.

The statement came just hours after the White House put out a statement of its own, in which it condemned calls for violence and "physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community" on Columbia's campus. Earlier in the day a prominent rabbi at the school urged Jewish students to leave the campus for the sake of their safety amid heated protests.

“While every American has the right to peaceful protest, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous — they have absolutely no place on any college campus, or anywhere in the United States of America," White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement, after video emerged on social media over the weekend that appeared to show pro-Palestinian activists telling Jewish students, "The 7th of October is going to be every day for you," in reference to the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel last fall.

"Echoing the rhetoric of terrorist organizations, especially in the wake of the worst massacre committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, is despicable. We condemn these statements in the strongest terms," Bates added.

CNN reported Sunday that Rabbi Elie Buechler, a rabbi at Columbia, confirmed that he sent a message to 300 Jewish students suggesting they leave campus for their own safety and not come back. The Hillel organization for Columbia and Barnard rejected that advice in an X post, despite acknowledging it was "a time of genuine discomfort and even fear for many of us on campus.”

Concern over the protests caught the attention of several members of Congress, including Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) who on Sunday offered to walk with Jewish students on campus.

“I will be coming to Columbia University to walk with the Jewish students. If the University won’t protect them, Congress will!,” Moskowitz, who is Jewish, posted on X on Sunday.

Moskowitz’s offer, and the warning from Buechler, came a day before the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover.

Moskowitz wasn’t alone. Former New York Rep. George Santos, a Republican, made a similar offer minutes later.

“I’m stepping up to go escort Jewish students to and from class in [safety] at @Columbia! Who’s with me? Let’s show our support and push back on evil!,” Santos posted.

On the campaign trail, Santos described himself as a Jewish descendent of Holocaust refugees who fled to Brazil before walking back the claim (“I never claimed to be Jewish… I said I was ‘Jew-ish,” he told the New York Post.) The New York Republican was expelled from Congress in December after an explosive House Ethics Committee report found “significant evidence” he had broken the law.

Protests have roiled Columbia’s campus since last week, and came to head when New York Police Department officers swarmed the campus Thursday and arrested over 100 pro-Palestinian student protesters as thousands of others shouted for them to stop.

Columbia President Minouche Shafik authorized the arrests, calling the move “a decision that I hoped would never be necessary.”

The encampment of students on the Manhattan campus “severely disrupts campus life, and creates a harassing and intimidating environment for many of our students,” Shafik wrote in a university-wide email following the arrests.

Biden, in his statement, noted that the holiday of Passover was coming at a particularly difficult time for Jews still processing what took place on Oct. 7. He pledged that fighting antisemitism would continue to be an administration priority.

"My Administration will continue to speak out and aggressively implement the first-ever National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism," said Biden, "putting the full force of the federal government behind protecting the Jewish community.