CUFI On Campus

In 2024, the 29-year-old singer and eight members of her production team performed a livestream concert on Ahmadi’s YouTube channel. Ahmadi defied Iran’s mandatory dress code for women and did not wear a hijab while performing the patriotic song “Az Khoon-e Javanan-e Vatan” (“From the Blood of the Youth of the Homeland”). Shortly after she posted the video of the “Caravanserai Concert” online, she and two members of her band were arrested and briefly detained, according to the US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran.

The investigation stems from several complaints by Jewish and Israeli psychologists alleging that the association has promoted or failed to discipline anti-Israel activism among some of its affinity groups. The complaints also allege that the APA has encouraged “decolonizing therapy” methods that attack Zionism.

Raeefa Shams, director of communications and programming at Academic Engagement Network, told JNS that “it is egregious that anti-Zionist Jewish faculty at Columbia University are claiming that they were discriminated against for their views.”

“Many of these faculty helped to create an atmosphere where Jewish, Zionist and Israeli faculty and students felt excluded, unwelcome, and even physically threatened,” Shams said. “They provided the intellectual scaffolding for the actions of student demonstrators. For them to now use topsy-turvy definitions of antisemitism to bolster their claims is absurd.”

Alexander Stepnowsky, 23, of Fairfield, Connecticut, was arrested Tuesday afternoon on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and charged with one count of hate crime burglary, two counts of aggravated harassment and one count of criminal trespassing in a hate crime, according to the New York City Police Department.

The day-long event, titled “Antisemitism and Universities,” drew more than 50 people to the Rubenstein Treehouse in Allston and was co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, the Harvard Law School Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law, and the Office of the President and Provost.

Dartmouth Jewish studies professor Susannah Heschel claimed that the focus on Gaza in university programming carried theological weight.

“Gaza sort of symbolizes, to me, Christ on the cross,” Heschel said. “In that sense, the worst possible suffering is the suffering of Christ on the cross. And of course, the Jews did it.”

By identifying with Gaza, she added, observers position themselves as moral atoners.

Do you really know where your money “for Gaza” is going?

Elrayess made the remarks, which recently came to light, in a student WhatsApp group of about 100 incoming freshmen in September 2025, the Daily Mail reported on Wednesday.

She also described the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of the northwestern Negev as “proportional,” claiming that after “decades” of mistreatment of Palestinians by Israel, “You can’t be surprised [by the events of Oct. 7.]”

One of the most disturbing realities of this war is Hamas’s continued exploitation of civilians.
According to an IDF Southern Command source, Hamas has used teenagers and people with disabilities alongside operatives to gather intelligence on Israeli troop movements and military activity.
Terrorist organizations that embed themselves among civilians, exploit vulnerable populations, and blur the line between combatants and noncombatants make conflict even more dangerous for everyone involved.
These tactics deserve scrutiny, not excuses.