Editor's Note: This week, WOSU’s George Shillcock explores how one Jewish organization in Columbus with national reach has taken steps to protect the community. Part 2 explores how some say those steps, which included reporting pro-Palestinian events to police, may have gone too far. Part 1 was released Tuesday and part 3 will air on Thursday.
After the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, antisemitism spiked in central Ohio. Jewish Columbus reported threats and harassment against Jewish people to police, but WOSU found the organization also reported protest activity that was critical of Israel.
Some believe Jewish Columbus’ actions blurred the lines between hate speech and protected speech by reporting both to police. The group defended its actions to WOSU at first, saying it didn't believe the protests as a whole were antisemitic. Now, Jewish Columbus says it is reporting both antisemitic attacks on Jewish people and events it believes are against Zionism.
Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis when it invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel retaliated, invading the Gaza Strip. In the nearly two years since, it is estimated that more than 60,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed.
Here in Columbus and around the U.S., people took to the streets to protest after Israel’s counterattack began, alleging Israel was committing genocide.
At this time Jewish Columbus, a branch of the Jewish Federations of North America, started seeing a rise in antisemitism. The group and its umbrella organization have increased security and established an intelligence apparatus across more than 100 locations in U.S. cities, including Cincinnati and Cleveland.
Jewish Columbus reported these antisemitic acts to police, but went a step further. WOSU found through a records request to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office that Jewish Columbus was also reporting any protest activity it thought was critical of Israel’s actions.
Jewish Columbus told police about Students for Justice in Palestine events at Ohio State University and Ohio Wesleyan University.
It also reported a candlelight vigil at the Ohio Statehouse hosted by the Noor Muslim Student group.
This small group of mostly young women and girls stated on Instagram in Nov. 2023 they were gathering for a silent tribute to the victims in Gaza.
There were no protests or speeches.
But Jewish Columbus reported the vigil to police anyway.
The Noor Muslim Students didn't agree to an interview with WOSU.
Khalid Turaani, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations of Ohio, is Palestinian-American and grew up in a village by the Sea of Galilee that he says was ethnically cleansed by Israel.
Turaani said he is outraged.
"To be honest with you, I think Jewish Columbus is losing its mind, its mission and its soul by becoming an informant on a candle vigil,” Turaani said. "And for (Jewish Columbus) to report that to the police as part of an intelligence gathering operation is above and beyond anything I would expect from a civic organization in Columbus."
CAIR-Ohio is similar to Jewish Columbus, acting as an advocacy group for Muslims in the Cincinnati and Columbus areas. Both groups track hate against their local populations.
Jewish Columbus also reported events organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, a group that opposes the war. In emails sent to police, Jewish Columbus claimed it didn’t know any Jewish members of this group.
One email also reported a Holocaust remembrance event hosted by Jewish Voice for Peace. Jewish Columbus noted it believed the event would include speech that is critical of Israel.
Ian Ghidossi, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, calls this deeply offensive. WOSU spoke with Ghidossi and one of the organization's Jewish founders, Farrel Brody, for this series.
"It's reminiscent of arguments I've heard online of Jews who are anti-Zionist, not being real Jews or self-hating Jews, things like that. Attacking our identity because we oppose occupation and opposed genocide," Ghidossi said.
The Associated Press Style Book defines Zionism as the effort by Jews to regain and retain their homeland. It is based on the promise of God in the book of Genesis that some claim says Israel would forever belong to Abraham and his descendants.
Zionism is also a nationalist political movement that gained traction after World War II to establish a Jewish state.
Jewish Columbus reported other protest events since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.
The group also sent reports to its "law enforcement partners" that summarized antisemitic incidents that occurred over a span of many months. Those reports included protest events and hate and harassment directed at Jewish community members.
Students for Justice in Palestine at Ohio State University, one of the student groups organizing these protests, didn't respond to a request for comment.
It took more than two months for the Franklin County Sheriff's Office to get these records back to WOSU. The office's records division informed WOSU the request had been taken over by the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office for review, which took the records division aback.
Nya Hairston, a spokesperson for the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office, said in an email the prosecutor’s office has a robust civil division that handles public records and contract negotiations, among other things for many county agencies, including the sheriff’s office.
WOSU also sent records requests for these documents to the Columbus Division of Police. The city's police department didn't send nearly as many records as the dozens sent to the Franklin County Sheriff's Office. None of the reports given to the Columbus Division of Police included reports of these protests.
Mike Higgins, security director for Jewish Columbus, told WOSU Columbus police are one of the agencies included in all the records that were sent to the Franklin County Sheriff's Office.
Columbus police redacted less email addresses of the recipients compared to the sheriff's office. The records show Jewish Columbus was also reporting these incidents to the FBI, the Ohio Department of Public Safety and other local government law enforcement agencies in Blendon Township, Perry Township and New Albany.
Police showed up to many of these protests at the Statehouse, on Ohio State's campus and along High Street. Dozens of people were arrested at one OSU protest in April 2024.
Ohio State University was bombarded with emails before this protest, pressuring the university to take actions against the protests. The emails alleged the protests were antisemitic.
Maria Durant, spokesperson for the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, told WOSU the sheriff's office didn't show up to the Noor Muslim student event, the Jewish Voice for Peace event or other protest events reported by Jewish Columbus that were found in the public records request. The sheriff's office was present in April 2024 when Ohio State police and troopers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol arrested dozens of people.
Higgins, with Jewish Columbus, said his organization sent these emails to alert police.
Higgins, who is a former U.S. Marine and Columbus police detective, is Catholic and was hired this year. These reports were primarily made by Stephen Flowers, Jewish Columbus' director of community wide security, before Higgins was hired.
Higgins said he and Jewish Columbus didn’t view the entire protest movement as antisemitic, but is critical of the movement.
“I think a lot of people are just unmasking their antisemitism under this guise of supporting or being against Israel in this conflict," Higgins said.
Higgins said protestors at these events often crossed a line, but not as a whole. Higgins claims individuals at the protests said things like, “'We hope you die. We will find you. We hope your parents die. Where do we cross that line from a protest to ethnic intimidation?”
Both the county prosecutor's office and sheriff's office deferred to Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein for comment on Jewish Columbus' actions. Klein called this "weird" and said if these crimes are deemed to be ethnic intimidation under Columbus city code, his office pursues them.
Klein said the rise of hate-based crimes or hate ideology directed towards any group is deeply disturbing and his office takes them very seriously. He said his office has a good relationship with Jewish Columbus, which can help his office and Columbus police react to reports and antisemitism when they happen.
Klein said the responsibility to report criminal activity like hate speech counterbalances sometimes with first amendment protections, like with the masked neo-Nazis who marched through the Short North last year. Klein said that incident is still being investigated.
"There may be speech that we don't like, but when that speech crosses into the criminal realm, when there's violence, when there is true intimidation and direct personal threats, or there's property destruction, then that can be a crime. And we certainly stand ready to prosecute those," Klein said.
Klein called the protests a complicated situation, but didn't say if he thought they crossed a line into being antisemitic.
"Where I stand from calling the balls and strikes of the city attorney's office is ensuring that there's an atmosphere where people can protest within the bounds of the first amendment, but also where people feel safe and respected and loved, and that shouldn't change because of their religion," Klein said.
Ohio State Representative Beryl Brown Piccolantonio, the House Minority Whip and member of the Ohio House of Representatives Jewish Caucus, said she thinks it wasn't inappropriate for Jewish Columbus to report these events.
"Yes, and it is law enforcement's responsibility to make a determination about whether or not to do anything about that information," Brown Piccolantonio said. "I would also say, I don't know that it's appropriate to judge whether or not an entity or an individual feels that they need to pass information to law enforcement. And it is the responsibility of law enforcement, like I said, to evaluate and make a determination if there is any action to be taken. And if so, what that action looks like."
Jewish Columbus reported one protest organizer for using symbols created by an internationally- recognized terrorist organization that fights alongside Hamas. The Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists used the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine symbol in an Instagram post advertising a Dec. 7, 2023 event.
Coco Smyth, an organizer with CORS, told WOSU their choice to pick any of these particular posters had nothing to do with the particular groups that produced them. Instead, Smyth said CORS chose the symbol because of the imagery being overtly left wing.
"I think it's just kind of absurd and I would question the approach that this group has and really the U.S. government has to these sorts of issues," Smyth said.
Smyth said groups like PFLP have a right to resist Israeli occupation. Smyth said he isn't surprised Jewish Columbus was reporting protest activity to police.
"This has become the norm for a lot of these groups that posture as Jewish cultural groups, but are in fact political groups in support of Palestine, you know," Smyth said.
Ohio State University initially suspended CORS at the height of the protests. Smyth said that suspension was later lifted.
Turaani, with CAIR-Ohio, condemns antisemitism, but says criticizing Israel’s actions is not the same. Turaani said that alongside a spike in antisemitism there has also been a spike in Islamophobia.
NPR reported CAIR's national arm found in 2023 it received its highest number of anti-Muslim bias complaints ever. CAIR says it took in 8,061 bias reports in 2023 and that nearly half of them came in the final three months of the year, following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
Turaani's branch organization reported a similar number to WOSU about 2024 in its annual civil rights report.
Ghidossi, with Jewish Voice for Peace, said there needs to be more respect for the different opinions Jewish people have about the conflict.
“To me, my Judaism, my identity, does not require me to support (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's government or the war crimes being committed by the Israeli military Gaza. And I know plenty of people that feel that same way,” Ghidossi said.
Johnathan Feibel, board president of Jewish Columbus, said in a statement in response to Turaani's criticism that whenever organizations associated with antisemitism or anti-Zionism convene, they will immediately notify local law enforcement.
Turaani said he thinks Jewish Columbus has its priorities mixed up if it is reporting a candlelight vigil to police instead of joining it in solidarity.
"It tells me, really, the mindset of Jewish Columbus, that they are not concerned really with anti-Semitism. They're concerned with the image of Israel," Turaani said.
