I Was Fired from the Columbia University’s Newspaper for Being an Orthodox Jew

For two years, Eliana Goldin wrote for Columbia University’s student newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator. She rose through the ranks to become a senior staff writer for the university news section and had close relationships with everyone on the team.

Right before October 7th, she happened to take a break from writing. When it occurred, she started advocating for Israel, which took up her time.

In February of 2024, she was finally ready to get back into writing and was hired for the Spec as a columnist to discuss the common ground between Israelis and Palestinians. After her first column came out, the trouble began, as Eliana posted on her X account this past May 20.

“People dug up my old social media posts to find something they could use to bully me, and they found a poll I had asked my Instagram followers months before October 7th,” she wrote. “The poll said, ‘Would you k*ll someone from Amalek?’ Immediately, tons of Columbia students posted on their social media platforms that I had called for the death of Palestinians because of that poll. SJP posted it on their Instagram, and it received 18,000 likes and had a ton of scary death threats asking about my identity.”

Just a few days later, the head of the opinion section called Eliana and fired her.

“In the time when I needed support the most, the Columbia Daily Spectator — people I had once been friends with — left me to fend for myself,” she wrote. “And the thing is, Amalek has nothing to do with Palestinians. I explained that the question of Amalek is akin to the Binding of Isaac — a Jewish thought experiment on whether you would go against your own personal morality to follow God’s morality — but they didn’t care.”

She kept trying to explain that she was in no way comparing Palestinians to Amalek, the biblical nation that was a hereditary arch-enemy of the Israelites. No one would listen.

“Judaism was whatever they wanted it to be,” she wrote. “Just as it is Islamophobic to define Islam based off of extremists who take the religion out of pocket and use it for their own racist aims, so too is it antisemitic to do the very same thing with Judaism. But that’s what Spec did. They defined my Judaism based on extremists.”

And then, the editors turned the heat up even more, publishing an op-ed saying a Columbia student was calling for the deaths of Palestinians. They linked it to her Instagram poll. She got mean looks on campus, and a peer DMed her, calling her vile and disgusting.

I went out of my way to engage in dialogue with people who disagreed with me. And yet when it came down to it, all people saw was what they wanted to see.

“As a Jewish leader on campus, I spent my entire tenure trying to make more room for alternative viewpoints within the Zionist community,” she wrote. “I went out of my way to engage in dialogue with people who disagreed with me, even when it was uncomfortable. And yet when it came down to it, all people saw was what they wanted to see: that Orthodox Jews are racist to their very core because of their religious beliefs, and that Zionists have no room for Palestinians in their narrative. Antisemites see what they want to see.”

Coming Forward with the Truth

Eliana waited until May 20 of this year, after she graduated, to go public with her story on X. She told Aish she’s not sure where she will go from here, as it’s been a difficult time.

“It’s taken this huge mental and emotional toll on me,” she said. “As soon as you speak out against antisemitism, there is always this huge backlash that occurs. It’s hard to roll with that. It takes a lot just to begin fighting.”

So far, no one from Columbia has contacted her about the incident. Her post went live the same week that the Trump Administration claimed that Columbia violated Jewish students’ rights and is now in violation of the standards set by Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which is Columbia’s accreditor.

“Maybe [Columbia is] worried about a lawsuit and that’s why they haven’t reached out, but it’s really sad that that hasn’t happened,” Eliana said.

Additionally, her former colleagues haven’t been in touch either.

“No one on the newspaper staff has reached out to apologize, which makes me think they are not capable of making requisite changes that are needed to make in order to combat the antisemitism in their staff and that’s systemically embedded into the newspaper. That makes me think a lawsuit might be the only option.”

Should Jewish Students Stay at These Universities?

Though Eliana had negative experiences at Columbia, including at the newspaper, she also had positive ones: for the first time in her life, the practicing Jew and day school graduate went outside of her bubble and felt even more secure in her identity.

“Being in an environment where not everyone his like you is how you really clarify your beliefs and values and practice,” she said. “It’s been really enriching to be an Orthodox Jew at Columbia.”

Eliana believes that Jewish students should still go to secular universities if they want to. After all, universities hold tremendous power in society and if we don’t have a stake, we could be left out entirely.

“Separate but equal is not equal,” she said. “If we retreat and lose our position in Ivy League universities, I imagine it’ll be incredibly difficult to regain. Jews used to not be allowed into many Jewish universities and then there were Jewish activists who fought to allow them to be able to attend. We can’t back down now.”

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