Kingsborough College Professor Jeffrey Lax, an Orthodox Jew who spearheaded an organization to fight against unfair treatment, including anti-Zionist and or antisemitic behavior, said that X (formerly Twitter) must take action against accounts falsely reporting him and others as a spam account. In an interview with The Jewish Press, Lax said his account was shut down twice in the last few weeks, and though it was ultimately restored both times, it is incumbent upon X to shut a loophole that has been weaponized by Israel haters.
Lax, an attorney and Business Department Chair at Kingsborough College, said he posted a document that showed his faculty union was not only supporting BDS (“Boycott, Divestment and Sanction” of Israel), but adopting it as policy. He then saw his X account was suspended after being reported as spam.
“The timing is never a coincidence,” Lax said. “It is always when I reveal something or appear on Fox News and talk about the truth people don’t want to hear. It is far too easy to falsely report someone as spam or a fake account and get them shut down for a few days. There are people who want to shut me up because of my criticism of CUNY and the union. Elon (Musk) needs to adopt a policy that if an account falsely reports someone as spam, that profile is shut down and permanently barred. The pro-Hamas types are banding together and have enormous numbers. It’s not about me. I don’t have a huge following. But Jewish accounts are targeted as spam or bots, and it needs to be stopped. Beyond that, this allows anyone who wants to temporarily silence someone if they don’t agree with their ideas of political opinion. It’s not right.”
Lax said his account is getting viewed less frequently since the two false reports that his account was fake.
Lax spearheaded S.A.F.E. CUNY (Students and Faculty for Equality at CUNY) to advocate for Zionists experiencing discrimination or exclusion. Lax was among many who testified in 2022 at the City Council’s hearing on antisemitism in Higher Education. He and five other professors filed suit against the faculty union representing them after the passage of a resolution they deemed antisemitic and anti-Israel in 2021 that referred to Israel as an “apartheid state,” and after union delegates chanted “Zionists out of CUNY” an anti-Israel rally. The suit in part argued that it was wrong to offer only an option for a union that went against their interests. He wrote in The Algemeiner that “Union officials don’t want Zionist Jews in their membership ranks? Fine. They shouldn’t be speaking or negotiating for us either…” The Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal. But he wrote that there is a bill called the Union Members Right to Know Act that could thwart unions from promoting antisemitism.
Lax also said while a recent report on antisemitism that had been commissioned by New York State Governor Kathy Hochul had some positive elements, there were a number of omissions, including that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) substantiated his claim that the union discriminated against him personally.
In a previous interview with The Jewish Press, Lax said he was falsely accused of discrimination since he stood up against antisemitism and would be exonerated. In October of 2023, an eight-month investigation found no evidence of any wrong-doing by Lax.
Lax appears on different news programs and writes for Jewish publications, alerting the public to issues of antisemitism. He said he is aware many have tried to silence him, but as a grandson of Holocaust survivors, he will not be silenced.
Way before the attacks of October 7 by Hamas, Lax was warning about discrimination against Jewish students at CUNY, but now, he said, nationwide there are professors who indoctrinate students against Israel.
Lax said there are a range of problems to contend with, and solutions may be difficult, but for the current one, he said it’s fairly simple.
“In real life, if someone defames you, you can sue for defamation,” Lax said. “Online, if someone reports you as fake when you are a real person, the obvious remedy is to shut them down. I don’t know how X works on its end, but it is obvious in seconds to see that my profile is not fake and there should not be a system where people are suspended just because people don’t like what they have to say and make a false report. This is a problem that affects many people.”
Lax said he will not back down from those trying to bully or intimidate him.
“The system is set up at many colleges that Jews are afraid to speak out because they fear retaliation at worst, or insufficient action at best,” Lax said. “I will always do what is right and I encourage other Jewish students and faculty to speak up if they are discriminated against.”
