Hunter College has devolved into a “hostile work environment” for Jews over its administration’s refusal to crack down on antisemitic protests, the CUNY school’s Jewish studies director alleged in a fiery federal suit.
Leah Garrett, who heads the school’s Jewish Studies Center, ripped the public university’s leaders for turning a blind eye to antisemitic demonstrations across its Upper East Side campus in the aftermath of Oct. 7 — including allowing students to brandish posters with blood dripping from a Star of David and demanding Zionists be expelled, according to the suit filed in Manhattan federal court Tuesday.
“After Oct. 7, I was horrified and distraught to see that immediately on the campus of Hunter, there was a pervasive and compelling and constant series of anti-semitic things that I had to deal with, that my students had to deal with, that my faculty had to deal with,” Garrett told The Post.
“The administration was doing literally nothing to stop it,” she added.
In November 2023, the leadership at Hunter College dragged their heels for hours after Garrett begged them to cover up swastikas drawn on Israeli hostage posters around campus, claiming their hands were tied over bureaucratic and legal reasons, according to the suit.
Months later, CUNY leaders failed to address the professor’s safety concerns after an anti-Israel student group at the college published the professor’s photo on social media, and at least one student emailed her an antisemitic message claiming Satanists were “more moral” than Jews, the complaint read.
Garrett, who was hired by Hunter College in 2018 and earned $172,710 in fiscal year 2023, “was left to navigate an increasingly hostile work environment and forced to shoulder the additional burden of acting as the sole academic advocate for Jewish students and faculty,” according to court records.
CUNY violated Garrett’s civil rights and violated her contract by allowing antisemitism to run rampant on campus, in addition to acting negligently, according to the complaint.
“Hopefully, this lawsuit will shine a bright light on yet another CUNY dumpster fire,” said City Councilman Kalman Yeger (D-Brooklyn), who recently co-authored a scathing letter to CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez calling for a probe into an anti-Israel professor who allegedly helped organize a destructive rally at City College in April.
Garrett is seeking damages, with the amount to be determined at trial, and is being represented by the Lawfare Project and the firm Alston & Bird.
A Hunter College spokesperson declined to comment on pending ligation, but said the school “has no tolerance for antisemitism or hate of any kind.”
