On February 25, 1996, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a bus in Jerusalem, murdering 26 innocent people and injuring 48 more. Among the victims were Columbia University’s own Sara Duker and Matthew Eisenfeld – a brilliant environmental science student from Barnard College and an aspiring rabbi from the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Fast forward to January 30, 2025: Israel, in its painful pursuit of retrieving hostages held by Hamas, released Mohammed Abu Warda, the terrorist mastermind responsible for that devastating attack. In exchange, on February 15, 2025, Sagui Dekel-Chen – son of former Columbia visiting professor Jonathan Dekel-Chen – was finally freed after nearly 500 harrowing days in Hamas captivity, having been kidnapped while heroically protecting his family during the brutal October 7, 2023 massacre at Kibbutz Nir Oz in Israel.
Since October 7, 2023, Columbia’s campus has been engulfed in protests, inflammatory rhetoric, and an unsettling surge of antisemitism. This is not a complex issue. It is a choice between those who stand for peace and humanity – Team Sara, Matthew, and Sagui – and those who align themselves with terrorism and violence – Team Mohammed.
To the students who have steadfastly supported Team Sara, Matthew, and Sagui: Your courage in standing for human dignity amidst a rising tide of hostility is nothing short of admirable. You have resisted the moral cowardice that has infected much of our campus, and history will commend your courage.
Even more impressive is that you do so despite the moral bankruptcy of Columbia’s administration, which has repeatedly failed to defend its Jewish students from harassment and intimidation.
To Columbia’s faculty and administrators: Academic freedom is not a shield for moral abdication. If you champion free speech, wield it with integrity to denounce terrorism unequivocally. Silence in the face of terror is not neutrality; it is a dereliction of duty.
To the members of Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voices for Peace (a grotesque misnomer for those who promote violence), Columbia University Apartheid Divest, and others who rally behind Team Mohammed: When you chant “violence is the only path forward,” you are glorifying the murder of Sara and Matthew and the kidnapping of Sagui. When you shout “Globalize the Intifada,” you are endorsing not just past atrocities but future violence against Jews worldwide, including in the United States.
Your allegiance to a cause that sanctifies bloodshed is a stain on your humanity. If you genuinely believe in these causes, reflect deeply on the moral abyss you have embraced. And if your support is merely performative or driven by peer pressure, know that you are pawns in a dangerous ideology that would discard you as readily as it did the lives of Sara, Matthew, and Sagui.
To those who just want to focus on classes
TO THOSE at Columbia who remain indifferent – who just want to focus on classes, social lives, and future careers: Your desire for normalcy is entirely understandable, and while we sympathize with you, we also encourage you to heed the post-World War II words of regret from German pastor and theologian Martin Niemoller:
“First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist… Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
Today’s targets are Jews; tomorrow, it could be you. This is your moment to educate yourself on a critical issue of our time and engage with supporters of Sara, Matthew, and Sagui.
To all Columbia students, faculty, and administration: Stand with Team Sagui, Sara, and Matthew. Choose moral clarity over moral equivalence. Choose courage over complacency. History will judge us all – may it judge us favorably. Let Columbia finally serve as a beacon of integrity that rejects terror and honors the legacies of Sara and Matthew and the life of Sagui.
David Friedman is an alumnus of Columbia College and served as US ambassador to Israel, 2017-2021. He now chairs the Friedman Center for Peace through Strength. Ezra Gontownik is an alumnus of Columbia College and former Columbia College Student Council president. He is the founder and managing partner of private investment firm Rockpost Capital, an advisory board member of the Combat Antisemitism Movement, and co-founder and president of Kol HaNearim, a nonprofit supporting at-risk Israeli youth.