Inside Columbia University’s ‘Museum of Terror’

Even before she first stepped foot on Columbia’s quads this past fall, Shoshana Aufzien was aware of antisemitism on campus. But she didn’t truly witness it until November 10, two months after she started studying at Barnard, Columbia’s sister school.

Aufzien was scrolling through Instagram when she spotted a post from Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) and two other pro-Palestinian groups, promoting an event at a Columbia literary society, Alpha Delta Phi (ADP). The two-day event, on November 9 and 10, was entitled “Hind’s House,” in tribute to a 5-year-old Gazan girl, Hind Rijab, who died during Israel’s war against Hamas. A strict schedule was listed for the second day:

2:00 COMMUNITY COOKING BEGINS

2:30 PALESTINE 101 w/ @cujafra

4:00 PROTEST SKILLS TRAINING w/ @cuapartheiddivest

5:00 KNOW YOUR RIGHTS TRAINING w/ C*LUMBIA LEGAL

5:30 DEFENSE TRAINING

6:00 ON TECHNOGENOCIDE

6:30 DIRECT ACTION TRAINING

As a concerned Jewish student, Aufzien decided to go to the event to see what her peers were up to. What she saw, she said, shocked her. “The only way I can describe it,” she told me, “is a museum of terror.”