Harvard, Columbia quietly promote individuals involved in antisemitic incidents - Mathilda Heller

 

by Mathilda Heller

A Harvard graduate who assaulted a Jewish classmate has been given a graduate teaching fellowship, and a Columbia Associate Professor who blocked Jewish students has been promoted to full Professor

 

Ibrahim Bharmal and Elom Tettey-Tamaklo surrounded a Jewish student named Yoav Segev and covered him with keffiyehs while shouting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” as he tried to free himself and said "don't touch me." October 2023.

(photo credit: SCREENSHOT/X)

A Harvard graduate who assaulted a Jewish classmate on camera has been given a graduate teaching fellowship, which involves curriculum design.

During an anti-Israel protest in October 2023, Elom Tettey-Tamaklo cornered a Jewish student named Yoav Segev and covered him with keffiyehs while shouting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” as Segev tried to free himself and said “don’t touch me.”

While Tettey-Tamaklo originally faced a criminal trial, Boston Municipal Court Judge Stephen W. McClenon dismissed the charges at the end of April, instead ordering him to attend “pre-trial diversion” anger management courses and perform 80 hours of community service.

Tettley-Tamaklo benefited from antisemitic violence

Then, in May 2025, The Jerusalem Post reported that, despite the attack, Tettley-Tamaklo was appointed class marshal by Harvard Divinity School at its graduation ceremony.

“The assailants have perversely benefited from their antisemitic violence and vitriol, getting praise from Harvard social media, and Tettey-Tamaklo is also being given the honor of serving as marshal at graduation,” Segev wrote in a letter to the college at the time.

STUDENTS HOLD signs reading, ‘There are no universities left in Gaza’ and ‘Free Gaza’ at last year’s Harvard University Commencement Exercises in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Heritage Foundation is going after campus radicals and Islamist sympathizers who glorify Hamas, says the writer. (credit: BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS)

According to his LinkedIn, Tettley-Tamaklo now serves as a graduate teaching fellow at Harvard, where he is responsible for "consulting on complex subject matter," "designing learning materials," and "advising faculty on curriculum design."

A LinkedIn user commented on a recent post asking how Harvard hired a guy who assaulted a Jewish student, to which Tettley-Tamaklo replied, “Zionist intimidation is so tired at this point. I'm sure you were taught that if you have nothing nice to say, you stay quiet."

Separately, Columbia history professor Manan Ahmed, who blocked Jewish students at a pro-Palestine encampment in May 2024, has been promoted from Associate Professor to full Professor.

A video circulated at the time of a Jewish student asking to come through, and Ahmed resists. When he asks why, Ahmed says, "because the [encampment] students have said that. You can't go in."

In the spring of this year, he was listed as an associate professor at the Department of History; he is now listed as a full professor.

"Professors like Manan Ahmed, who blocked Jewish students at the encampment, have faced no consequences. Instead, they've been promoted," wrote Columbia's Jewish and Israeli Student group on X. 

NEW: @Columbia History professor Manan Ahmed, who blocked Jewish students at the encampment, has been promoted from Associate Professor to full Professor (proof in comment). Prof. Ahmed was never disciplined. Instead, Columbia rewarded him. pic.twitter.com/H21tS22xKw

— Columbia Jewish & Israeli Students ✡️🇮🇱 (@CUJewsIsraelis) December 3, 2025

Columbia Faculty and Staff Supporting Israel questioned who purchased the vests and instructed faculty to block students at the encampment. Blocking students violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Mathilda Heller

Source: https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-879241

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