Jewish student settles religious discrimination suit against Columbia

FIRST ON FOX: A Jewish student who alleged she was forced out of her graduate program in part because of her Shabbos observance has settled her religious discrimination lawsuit against Columbia University.

The terms of the settlement in the lawsuit filed by The Lawfare Project and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP were confidential, but Lawfare Project executive Ziporah Reich said it included financial compensation and other relief. 

“These outcomes reflect the power of legal action to bring about meaningful change, we are proud to stand behind a courageous student who chose to stand up for her rights,” Lawfare Project Director Brooke Goldstein told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

A Columbia spokesperson confirmed the settlement, saying, “We have reached a mutually agreeable confidential settlement with Forrest that did not include any admission of liability.”

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Mackenzie Forrest, an Orthodox Jewish student from Florida, claimed she was forced out of the Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) program at the Columbia School of Social Work (CSSW), after she requested that she be allowed to attend classes remotely out of concern for her safety amid widespread antisemitic campus unrest following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks.

Forrest alleged that she attended the Columbia School of Social Work specifically because of her interest in the DBT program. However, when she informed the program’s director, Andre Ivanoff, Ph.D., that she would not be able to engage in classroom activities that fall on the Jewish Sabbath shortly after she was accepted in Spring 2023, Ivanoff allegedly replied that that would be a “problem,” court documents say.

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The Jewish graduate student received further pushback regarding her religious practices when she informed Ivanoff that she would be unable to attend a weekend-long workshop on suicide risk assessment because it fell on Shabbos, also known as the Sabbath.

Despite Forrest saying that she could attend the parts of the workshop that did not occur between Friday night to Saturday night, Ivanoff allegedly told her she would need a “dispensation” from her rabbi to attend the workshop. Eventually, Ivanoff decided he would assign her substitute coursework in lieu of the workshop when Forrest informed him he could not attend.

Following the Oct. 7 attacks in 2023, Columbia’s campus exploded into a hotbed of antisemitism. In light of what the plaintiff claimed was widespread verbal abuse and a physical assault of a pro-Israel student who was allegedly beaten with what appeared to be a broom, Forrest requested that she be allowed to attend class remotely out of fear for her safety. 

Not only was the grad student’s request denied, but soon after she claimed she faced retaliation from the university. Despite being a straight-A student, Forrest was told she was at risk of failing the field-based internship portion of her curriculum, according to the claim. The Jewish student alleged that she had never previously been told she was under-performing by her academic advisor, whom she met with regularly.