Due to Antisemitism: Senator Moynihan's Daughter Boycott's CUNY Center Named For Him

Maura Moynihan, daughter of former New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, is boycotting the opening of a City College of New York (CUNY) center named after her late father, according to Arutz-7. This protest is due to what she perceives as an antisemitic speech given by Fatima Mohammed, a CUNY Law School graduate and member of Students for Justice in Palestine, during the school's May commencement ceremony. In the speech, Mohammed referred to the founding of Israel as a "catastrophe" and invoked antisemitic conspiracy theories. Despite this, CUNY failed to condemn the speech.

Senator Moynihan was a prominent supporter of Israel, famously opposing a 1975 UN resolution that equated Zionism with racism. Maura Moynihan quoted her father's past UN speech in which he denounced antisemitism while expressing her dismay over the speech given at CUNY, which she sees as a dangerous normalization of antisemitism. She emphasized the necessity of taking action against such rhetoric, beyond just issuing condemnatory statements.

Maura's protest brings attention to other recent controversies surrounding CUNY, including investigations against Jewish Zionist professors who spoke out against antisemitism, and the employment of Marc Lamont Hill, previously let go by CNN for endorsing violence against Israel in a 2018 UN speech. She questioned the point of having a center bearing her father's name at an institution that does not actively stand against antisemitism.