A Conflict-Theatre Troupe Visits a Land of Strife (Columbia University)

From his spot beside the stage, Doerries waved at Clémence Boulouque, a professor of Jewish and Israel studies, who had helped plan the performance. She took a seat in the auditorium. Boulouque is a member of the university’s task force on antisemitism; the group’s records are being sought by the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce. The night’s turnout encouraged her. The production had been placed on a boycott list by the Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition, a student group spurred, in part, by the university’s decision to suspend two other groups, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, both of which had been protesting the Israeli military’s mass killing of civilians in Gaza. “This is the reality here now,” Boulouque said. A few moments before the performance began, Minouche Shafik, the president of the university, sat down near Boulouque.