Columbia Business School Professor Resigns, Citing Pro-Hamas Colleague Joseph Massad’s Course on Zionism
3rd February 2025
Columbia Business School professor Avi Friedman has resigned, citing the university’s decision to appoint a Hamas-praising professor, Joseph Massad, to teach a course on Zionism, according to a letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
In his letter, dated Jan. 29, Friedman called his resignation “months in the making” and “unavoidable” given the “events of October 7, 2023, and the university’s subsequent response.” Friedman said he found himself “making excuses” in defense of Columbia and its administrators in the wake of Hamas’s terror attack but “can no longer mask what has become inexcusable and systemic.”
“The university’s decision to appoint Joseph Massad to teach a class on Zionism represents a complete abandonment of academic integrity and unbiased scholarship,” wrote Friedman. “This appointment was no oversight—it represents a deliberate choice that aligns with the university’s ideology.”
Massad, Friedman continued, “stands as a celebrated figure in the intifada movement—a status that Columbia now continues to endorse.”