Jewish group blasted for honoring CUNY honcho Bill Thompson amid hate speech furor
Jewish activists are turning on the Jewish Community Relations Council for honoring CUNY board chairman Bill Thompson with its annual “Public Service Award” at its spring gala Monday night — amid complaints of campus antisemitism and hate speech at the public university.
The JCRC — self described as the primary Jewish communications agency in the city — is bestowing Thompson with its award at the New York Historical Society just weeks after an incendiary commencement speech delivered by CUNY law school grad Fatima Mousa Mohammed decried as antisemitic.
“[We are] proud to honor Bill Thompson, Jr. with this year’s Public Service Award. Bill has been a friend to the City of New York and to JCRC-NY for over three decades… and has been a dedicated advocate for diversity, innovation, and progress across the public and private sectors,” the statement said.
Thompson, a former city comptroller and mayoral candidate, himself co-signed a statement belatedly slamming Mohammed’s tirade as “hate speech.”
“This is an outrageous insult and obsequious act against the Jewish community. No one in the CUNY administration should be honored by JCRC,” said former 15-year CUNY board trustee Jeffrey Wiesenfeld.
Wiesenfeld said he was particularly infuriated that CUNY Law School Dean Sudha Setty and other administrators on the stage during the graduation ceremony not only did not challenge or denounce Mohammed’s speech, they were seen applauding it.
“Billy Thompson and the chancellor didn’t fire the law school dean who applauded that jihadist speech to destroy the Jews in Israel. Let’s call it what it was,” he said.
Some activists said they would protest outside the JCRC gala.
“Jews are under attack@CUNY. Where is JCRC?,” said a protest flier put out by the group Yad Yamin NY.
JCRC said it wasn’t giving CUNY’s leadership a pass and issued a statement slamming Mohammed’s speech for spewing “antisemitic tropes.”
While it praised the statement that Thompson and CUNY’s Board of Trustees put out calling Mohammed’s comments “hate speech”, it expressed disappointment they didn’t call it antisemitism.
“Once again, we urge@CUNY to revise its commencement speech guidelines before next year’s graduation,” JCRC said.
Thompson, who has traveled to Israel with JCRC members, declined comment.
During her May 12 commencement address, law school grad accused Israel of “indiscriminate” murder, encouraging “lynch mobs” and lauded resistance to “Zionism around the world.”
“Israel continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshipers, murdering the old, the young, attacking even funerals and graveyards… our silence is no longer acceptable,” she said. Mohammed slammed CUNY for continuing “to train and cooperate with the fascist NYPD, the military.” She also urged her fellow graduates to “fight against capitalism, racism, imperialism, and Zionism around the world.”
Even before the latest commencement controversy, the state Division of Human Rights opened a bombshell probe into whether CUNY’s School of Law discriminated against Jews when its faculty council passed a resolution last year supporting the pro-Palestinian boycott, divest and sanction (BDS) movement targeting Israel.
Last year, the City Council held a hearing on campus antisemitism. CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez was roundly criticized for not personally testifying, though he has since established programs to address Jew hatred and other forms of discrimination.
