by Katya Yindra
In May, Union Theological Seminary (UTS) in New York City became the first known U.S. institution of higher education to divest from the ongoing war in Gaza. An official statement from the board of trustees highlights the long-standing practice at UTS of “socially responsible investment (SRI) screens,” which are criteria used to include or exclude certain investments based on ethical, moral, or environmental considerations.
The school reports that these screens align their financial decisions with their ethical values, ensuring they do not “financially support damaging and immoral investments.” The statement references their early divestment from apartheid South Africa and their more recent screens against investing in for-profit prisons and fossil fuels.
The seminary’s current investment screens already exclude “armaments, weapons, and defense manufacturers” and “companies that participate in human rights violations,” meaning their financial impact on Israel’s genocidal project will likely be marginal. However, the trustees express their hope that their divestment “will bring needed pressure to bear to stop the killing and find a peaceful future for all.”
The school’s president Serene Jones denounced the NYPD sweep of the first Gaza Solidarity Encampment on Columbia’s main campus, as well as the brutal sweep of Hamilton Hall, occupied as Hind’s Hall almost two weeks later, criticizing the “terrorizing tactics” of the sweep, noting that they are “designed to strike fear not just in those arrested but throughout the entire community of Morningside Heights and, indeed, on campuses and communities across the nation.”
While endorsing divestment, the trustees state their “unequivocal” denouncement of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7. By contrast, at their last student senate meeting in April, UTS students voted 30-0 against condemning “the actions by Hamas, and by any individuals or groups affiliated with or acting in support of Hamas, on October 7, 2023,” thus taking a principled stand, refusing to denounce the Palestinian people’s right to armed resistance.
