The protests at Columbia University attracted national headlines, sparked congressional hearings, and led to the arrest of more than 100 students. This week, New England Patriots owner Robert K. Kraft, one of the school’s most famous and richest graduates, entered the picture.
Kraft, a 1963 Columbia graduate who has donated millions of dollars to the university, said he would stop giving money to the school until it took steps to reduce hate speech directed at some students and staff members.
“I no longer trust Columbia to protect its students and staff, and I do not feel comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken,” Kraft, who is Jewish, said in a statement. statement on Monday.
Protests have rocked the Upper Manhattan campus this month, with students arrested after refusing to leave a pro-Palestinian camp and crowds of protesters outside the school gates, at times harassing Jewish students or shouting anti-Semitic remarks.
Kraft’s attempts to fight anti-Semitism have become increasingly public in recent years, long before the October 7 attacks by Hamas against Israel and the war in Gaza. In 2019, Kraft, alarmed by attacks on Jews and synagogues in Pittsburgh, Poway, California and elsewhere, created the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, a nonprofit group trying to counter the rise of violent language on social media.
The foundation is in the midst of a $25 million television campaign that includes running ads during ABC’s Academy Awards telecast this year. Similar ads played during the NFL season and the Super Bowl.
“This is not a two- or three-year problem; “This is a problem that’s been going on for thousands of years,” Kraft said in an interview in December at the foundation’s office down the hall from his at the Patriots complex.
Many of the ads include reenactments of anti-Semitic attacks and a message that Jews and non-Jews should help each other defend themselves.
The one-minute ad that ran during the Academy Awards was based on an incident that occurred in Massachusetts. It began with a 13-year-old boy about to read the Torah at his bar mitzvah. A statistic flashes on the screen: “895 Jewish temples received bomb threats last year. This is one of those stories.”
A group of Christians gathered across the street see the police lights and invite the congregation to finish the ceremony at their church. When the boy resumes his Torah reading, another message appears: “Hate loses when we are together.”
The foundation’s mandate is to systematically track hate speech and use the findings to motivate people of all backgrounds to help combat anti-Semitic behavior, especially when it comes to online misinformation. That work has grown exponentially in recent months as criticism of Israel’s military actions in Gaza has given rise to intense debates that, in some cases, have led to anti-Semitic rhetoric.
At the foundation’s headquarters, computers monitor keywords, phrases and hashtags in real time on up to 300 million publicly available sources, including social media sites such as X, Instagram and TikTok, as well as blogs, online forums and websites. .
He has hosted “gatherings” of leaders from the sports world, including Jewish athletes like former Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman. In late January, Kraft helped bring together the commissioners of the major American sports leagues at the NFL headquarters in Manhattan.
College presidents, politicians and executives have sought his advice, including the CEO of Adidas, who last year cut ties with Kanye West after the sneaker giant was accused of condoning his inflammatory comments directed at Jews and disparaging Black Lives Matter. Kraft worked with Adidas on a plan to sell the remaining clothing and sneakers designed by West and donate some of the profits to organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League.
One friend Kraft hasn’t spoken to recently is former President Donald J. Trump. The two men were close for decades, but the language Trump has used on the campaign trail appears at odds with the mission of Kraft’s foundation.
In recent months, Kraft has been trying to strengthen bridges between the Jewish and Black communities. The ad the foundation ran during the Super Bowl featured Clarence Jones, speechwriter for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and president of the Spill the Honey Foundation, a nonprofit group that highlights the long alliance between African Americans and Jews.
In March, Mr. Kraft and Dr. Jones shared the stage at 92NY in New York, where they discussed ways their two foundations could work together.
“The ferocity and dedication of the Jewish people can be translated into simple, practical terms,” Dr. Jones said. “There would not have been a Civil Rights Act of 1964 or a Voting Rights Act of 1965, none of that would have happened if it weren’t for the alliance and support of the Jewish community. So I’m not going to sit back.”