Israeli Prof. Shai Davidai resigned from his post at Columbia Business School on the same day that he received a letter clearing him of harassment allegations.
On Wednesday, Davidai – an assistant professor of business at the university – posted a copy of a letter sent by the vice provost of Columbia telling him that the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) had closed its investigation into him.
The investigation began on February 8, 2024, after allegations were made about the Israeli professor. Columbia then suspended him temporarily after claiming he had “repeatedly harassed and intimidated university employees in violation of university policy.”
The letter shows that the OIE had closed the probe on July 8, “without any findings or conclusions of wrongdoing and without imposing discipline or penalty.”
Alongside the screenshot, Davidai wrote on X/Twitter: “Columbia tried to smear my name. I wouldn’t let them. Today, they finally admitted that I hadn’t done anything wrong.”
Davidai reportedly quits Columbia post
While Davidai only shared this one letter, a separate letter quickly circulated on social media, revealing that Davidai had left the school.
The letter was sent from Costis Maglaras, dean of the business school, to colleagues informing them that the professor “has decided to depart Colombia.”
“Since joining the Business School in 2019, Prof. Davidai has published 27 scholarly articles in top research journals on the psychology of judgement and decision-making, economic inequality and social mobility, social comparisons and zero-sum thinking.”
It noted that he won a Rising Star designation and was named Best 40 under 40 MBA professors by the Poets&Quants website. “We thank Professor Davidai for his service to our community and wish him the best,” Maglaras said.
Maryam Iqbal, who had made the harassment allegations against Davidai, posted a letter to Twitter sent by the OIE to her on Tuesday, informing her that “as of July 9, Shai Davidai is no longer employed at the University.”
“The OIE process has been terminated without any determination,” it added, noting that investigations close when an individual is no longer employed at the university.
This is markedly different from the letter sent to Davidai himself, which said there were no findings of wrongdoing, whereas the letter Iqbal shared suggested that the investigation only ended as a result of Davidai leaving the school.
Iqbal, who is the organizer of Students for Justice in Palestine’s Columbia chapter, said that Davidai doxxed her in January 2024 by “making a video edit of her and Mohsen [Mahdawi] at a protest, splicing in clips of Hamas leaders. He then circulated it to massive Zionist accounts. The result? Nonstop rape threats, deportation calls, and a wave of violent incitement,” she said.
Davidai has said that Iqbal is a Hamas supporter and terrorism apologist.
Two well-known pro-Palestinian protesters and Columbia students, Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, have said that Davidai targeted them and called for their deportation.
Davidai became known as a vocal supporter of Jewish students on campus and an outspoken Zionist following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
He gave a viral speech about antisemitism on campus shortly after the massacre and has often clashed with Columbia administrators, demanding that they take action against student activists and faculty who, he says, have created a hostile and threatening atmosphere for Jewish and Israeli students.