Shai Davidai (born 1983 or 1984) is an Israeli activist and former assistant professor at Columbia Business School. He is known for his outspoken advocacy for Israel and against the Columbia University pro-Palestinian campus protests and occupations during the Gaza war. After the October 7 attacks on Israel and during the subsequent Gaza war, Davidai's pro-Israel activity led him into conflict with Columbia University students, faculty, and administrators. He was temporarily suspended from the university for alleged harassment of faculty. An investigation into his conduct ended without a conclusion, and he left Columbia in July 2025.
Early life and family Davidai is Jewish and was born in Ramat Gan, Israel. His parents still live in Israel. His grandfather, Benjamin, was vice president of El Al and assisted in capturing Adolf Eichmann. Davidai grew up in Kiryat Ono. Unwilling to do his military service in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, he signed up for the Israeli navy, where he served as a medic. He is married to Yardenne Greenspan, an Israeli writer, and has two children.
Academic career Davidai earned a B.A. in psychology and cognitive science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2009. After moving to the United States around 2009, he earned a Ph.D. in social psychology and personality psychology from Cornell University in 2015. Professor Thomas Gilovich was his Ph.D. advisor. Davidai did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs in 2015–16. His first faculty position was at The New School for Social Research, where he was assistant professor of psychology from 2016 to 2019. From 2019 to 2025, Davidai was an assistant professor in the Columbia Business School faculty. He has studied how individuals' views on inequality, success, and failure affect their well-being. His work has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and numerous social and experimental psychology journals. His findings on FOMO, nepo babies, and perception of income inequality have been featured in The New York Times, Scientific American, The Guardian, and The New Yorker.
Gaza war
Pro-Israel advocacy at Columbia University
After the October 7 attacks on Israel and subsequent Gaza war, protests erupted at numerous educational institutions, including Columbia University. In Davidai's view, the student protesters were motivated by "hate". Critical of Columbia's response to pro-Palestine activism and antisemitism on its campus, he called on the administration to discipline pro-Palestine student organizations and increase its support for Jewish students. After a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) leader called the October 7 attacks "an unprecedented historic moment" and a faculty member referred to them as "a stunning victory", Davidai spoke at a candlelight vigil on campus in October 2023. In his speech, which he called an "open letter to every parent in America", he said that student protesters had celebrated the October 7 attacks and that several universities, including Columbia, were unsafe. Saying that KKK or ISIS supporters would not be allowed to demonstrate on campus, he called on university leadership to "eradicate all pro-terror student organizations". Columbia students set up encampments on campus as part of a pro-Palestine protest in April 2024. Davidai criticized the university's response as insufficient and called for the National Guard to respond. On 22 April, he asked Columbia's administration for police protection for a pro-Israel protest he had planned near the student encampment. It declined and told him to hold his event away from the encampment. When Davidai attempted to enter the main Columbia campus later that day, an administrator denied him access, and he discovered that his ID card had been deactivated. In a speech to the group of protesters that had come with him, he said it was his right as a Jewish person and professor to access the campus. He later tweeted: "This is 1938", comparing the incident to laws banning Jewish professors in Nazi Germany. A month later, Davidai reported that he had regained access to the campus. Later that year, a Jewish student said he was punched in the face at a Barnard pro-Palestinian protest, and Davidai argued that the university's inadequate response to campus protests had promoted the conditions leading to the violence. He also attributed the 2025 New Orleans truck attack to universities' inadequate response to protests organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). In March 2025, Davidai posted a message to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on X calling for the deportation of Palestinian student protester Mahmoud Khalil. Khalil emailed Columbia interim president Katrina Armstrong asking for protection following a "doxxing campaign", naming Davidai as one of the campaign's two leaders. Khalil was detained by ICE the next day. Davidai supported the arrest but expressed concern that Khalil would not receive a fair trial. Davidai appeared in October 8 (2025), a documentary about antisemitism during the Gaza war.
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