The disturbing threats are part of a larger trend.
On Sunday night, the president of Cornell University released a statement about antisemitic threats that had been made on the university’s Greekrank forums. “Earlier today, a series of horrendous, antisemitic messages threatening violence to our Jewish community and specifically naming 104 West — the home of the Center for Jewish Living — was posted on a website unaffiliated with Cornell,” Martha E. Pollack wrote, noting that law enforcement was immediately notified of the threats and the FBI was alerted to the potential hate crime.
“Threats of violence are absolutely intolerable, and we will work to ensure that the person or people who posted them are punished to the full extent of the law,” Pollack wrote, adding, “The virulence and destructiveness of antisemitism is real and deeply impacting our Jewish students, faculty and staff, as well as the entire Cornell community.”
Cornell’s threats are the latest in a disturbing trend that has been spreading across college campuses since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7. Last week, Emory University’s president put out a statement following a recent protest that took place on the campus. “Throughout the event, antisemitic phrases and slogans were repeatedly used by speakers and chanted by the crowd,” President Gregory L. Fenves, the university’s first Jewish president, explained in the email. (President Fenves’ statement does not expand upon the phrases in question, and Emory University declined to comment further.)
“I cannot be more clear — this kind of rhetoric has no place at Emory,” President Fenves wrote. “I am appalled by this behavior. It violates our core values, particularly our commitment to creating an inclusive environment for all who learn, work, and live on our campuses.”
And on Oct. 26, a group of Jewish students at Cooper Union in New York City say they locked themselves in the library while pro-Palestinian protestors banged on the library door for about 10 minutes. A police chief told The New York Times that police were present at the protest. “There was no direct threat,” he said, “And there was no danger to any students in that school.”
Earlier this month, an Israeli student at Columbia was allegedly assaulted with a stick — the student believes it was because they are Israeli.
Antisemitism is on the rise
According to the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitic incidents have risen by 388 percent in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. The organization reported a total of 312 antisemitic incidents between Oct. 7-23, 190 of which were linked to the war in Israel and Gaza.
“When conflict erupts in Israel, antisemitic incidents soon follow in the U.S. and globally,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the ADL, said in a press release.
National Security Councilor coordinator John Kirby told CNN that the White House is aware of the threat of rising antisemitism. “We continue to see that rise. It’s dangerous. It’s unacceptable — anywhere in the world, certainly here in the United States of America.” He added, “We’re working very closely at a federal level with state and local authorities to be able to better identify threats to the Jewish community and disrupt them.”
How President Biden is combatting antisemitism on college campuses
On Monday, the Biden administration announced new efforts it will undertake to combat antisemitism on college campuses. The Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Education are working to engage with campus law enforcement. A White House spokesperson said the DHS and DOJ “have disseminated public safety information to and hosted multiple calls with campus law enforcement, as well as state, local, tribal and territorial officials to address the threat environment and share information about available resources.” What’s more, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona are set to meet with members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Monday. Cardona and White House domestic policy advisor Neera Tanden will also meet with Jewish students at an unnamed university for a roundtable later this week.
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is also working to make it clearer that certain forms of antisemitism and Islamophobia are prohibited under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The DOE will be expediting its intake process for Title VI complaints to clarify that “discrimination on the basis of national origin in federally funded programs or activities — including ethnic or ancestral slurs or stereotypes against students who are for example Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, or Hindu — are forms of prohibited discrimination under this law.”
Islamophobia on the rise
Jewish students aren’t the only ones who report feeling unsafe in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. On Oct. 12, Columbia University put out a statement disavowing how “community members are observing and experiencing disturbing anti-semitic and Islamophobic acts, including intimidation and outright violence.”
On Oct. 28, Vanderbilt’s Muslim Students Association released a statement about “increasing incidents of Islamophobia on our campus and in American society as a whole,” writing that the university “is witnessing a surge in hate speech and Islamophobic incidents against Muslim students.”
In Michigan, two state lawmakers penned a letter to presidents, chancellors, and board members on college campuses addressing the growing “xenophobia, especially antisemitism and islamophobia, on the campuses of our state’s higher education institutions.”
“It has come to our attention that the ongoing tensions in the Middle East have led to a concerning increase in antisemitism and islamophobia, particularly on college campuses across our great state,” the letter stated, before offering suggestions to combat hate on campus.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S., noted in an Oct. 25 report that students have been targeted for their beliefs about the Israel-Hamas war, with some being doxxed. On Oct. 27, a “vile” and “reprehensible” note was found under the door of a Palestinian professor at American University, according to university president Sylvia Burwell. The university is working with the FBI to investigate.
Incidents of hate against the Muslim community are not just occurring in a vacuum on college campuses — CAIR reported that it had received 774 complaints since Oct. 7. The organization noted that the escalation in complaints was the largest spike CAIR received in a similar timeframe since Donald Trump first announced his intention to institute a Muslim ban in 2015.
President Biden’s measures also state that certain forms of Islamophobia are prohibited under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Earlier this month, Biden condemned hate against Jews and Muslims alike: “We can’t stand by and stand silent when this happens,” he said. “We must, without equivocation, denounce antisemitism. We must also, without equivocation, denounce Islamophobia.”
