Queens College ‘Cleans House’ of Jewish Accounting Professors Amid Campus ‘Antisemitic Hate,’ Lawsuit Alleges

Queens College is facing a lawsuit that accuses the City University of New York (CUNY) of purging Jewish faculty members from its accounting department in the wake of surging antisemitism on campus.

Helen Schwalb, a Jewish adjunct professor who taught at the college for over a decade, alleges she was one of six Jewish instructors let go in May 2023 as part of what she described in court filings as a campaign to “clean house of its Jewish staff,” Bloomberg reported. The legal complaint says the move came amid a campus climate marred by “antisemitic hate speech and violence” following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Republicans Launch Probe Into Antisemitism At Five Colleges, Defying Legal Challenges)

Queens College ‘cleans house’ of Jewish accounting professors after ‘antisemitic hate’ erupts on campus: lawsuit https://t.co/Zd46nMDOV9 pic.twitter.com/CbkFHW2rub

— New York Post Metro (@nypmetro) May 17, 2025

Schwalb, 66, who lives in Rockland County, said she consistently received high performance ratings and taught two to three courses per semester — including summer sessions — since 2012. She said the college reassigned her fully enrolled courses to younger, non-Jewish instructors with “lower performance ratings.”

The college, in statements to the media, cited declining enrollment and budget constraints as the reason for the staffing changes. But Schwalb contends that rationale doesn’t hold up. “My classes were full,” she said in court documents, adding that the positions were not eliminated but handed to less experienced educators.

The suit also accuses Queens College of failing to act against escalating antisemitism on campus, saying that the administration “repeatedly” ignored a “barrage” of hate speech and intimidation targeting Jewish students and faculty since Hamas’ brutal assault on Israel.

According to Queens College, the accounting department’s enrollment dropped 39% from 2020 to 2024, with a sharp 18% decline in just one year between 2022 and 2023. However, critics say that administrative inaction in the face of rising hostility may be contributing to a hostile environment, driving both faculty and students away.

Queens College has not publicly commented on the pending litigation.