The 10 Most Shocking Instances of Antisemitism on College Campuses This Past School Year
These are some of the more noteworthy and perhaps less documented antisemitic
incidents which impacted Jewish students across America.
By Aaron Silverstein, HonestReporting
Many college campuses across the United States have become hotbeds
for antisemitism, as HonestReporting has documented extensively in our
recent series.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported that there were 155
antisemitic incidents on college campuses in 2021, a 21 percent increase
from 2020. With the 2021-2022 academic year behind us, let’s examine
some of the more noteworthy and perhaps less documented antisemitic
incidents which impacted Jewish students across America.
1. Rutgers: Jewish Fraternity House Egged on Holocaust Remembrance Day Two Years in a Row
On Yom Hashoah, AEPI at Rutgers was the target of a series of antisemitic incidents for the second consecutive year.
During the fraternity’s annual 24-hour reading of the names of those
who died in the Holocaust, its house was egged by two unidentified
perpetrators.
This same incident had occurred during the previous year’s Yom
Hashoah ceremony. Days prior to this year’s egging, multiple cars full
of people waving Palestinian flags drove up to the fraternity house,
where they launched an antisemitic verbal assault, calling the
fraternity members “terrorists” and “baby killers.”
2. Tufts: Students for Justice in Palestine Promotes Discriminatory Boycott of Jewish Clubs on Campus
Tufts University has a troubling history of antisemitism, and a string of events over several months this year unfortunately reinforced this notion.
SJP at Tufts consistently promoted antisemitic rhetoric and blatant lies about Israel throughout the year.
This included the launch of an “Israel Apartheid Week,” painting “End
Israeli Apartheid” on the school’s landmark cannon, and denigrating
Hillel in a published statement contending that, “Hillel cannot both
support a genocidal, settler-colonial state and be committed to every
student feeling accepted and treated with respect.”
Accusing Hillel of supporting a “genocidal” state directly falls
under the widely adopted IHRA working definition of antisemitism, which
holds that “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that
of the Nazis” is inherently antisemitic.
Most notably, the Tufts Observer published an article by SJP, calling
on students to boycott a variety of Jewish clubs which “normalize or
benefit Israel,” including J-Street, an organization that has repeatedly
stated its support for a two-state solution.
3. U. of Central Florida: Jewish Student Beaten, Berated and Pepper Sprayed by Protestors Wearing Swastikas
In February, a Jewish student at the University of Central Florida
was driving past a rally being held by the white supremacist, neo-Nazi
National Socialist Movement. One of the members spat on the student’s
car, sparking an altercation that led to multiple members of the group
beating and pepper spraying the student, and subsequently throwing the
student’s phone down a storm drain.
According to video footage from the scene, the NSM members shouted
antisemitic slurs throughout the attack. The three main perpetrators
were arrested shortly thereafter.
4. USC: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Student Senator Posts Virulently Antisemitic Messages on Social Media
USC student Yasmeen Mashayekh, formerly a diversity, equity and
inclusion senator for the university’s Viterbi School of Engineering, posted a plethora of antisemitic posts
on social media throughout the academic year. Some of the posts
included statements such as, “I want to kill every motherf***ing
Zionist,” “The death of Israel is coming. I will do it single-handedly
if I must,” “Yes I f***king love Hamas,” and “curse the Jews” in Arabic.
These posts sparked outrage at USC — that is, for everyone but the
university itself. Other than a halfhearted apology via Twitter from the
School of Engineering, the university failed to issue any sort of
statement or condemnation of the blatant antisemitism. This prompted
sixty faculty members to sign a letter calling upon the university
administration to end its silence in regards to “ongoing open
expressions of antisemitism and Zionophobia.”
5. George Washington U.: Jewish Fraternity’s Torah Desecrated
At George Washington University, Tau Kappa Epsilon’s Fraternity house
was raided and its Torah scroll was desecrated and covered in laundry
detergent. Additionally, hot sauce was smeared over the premises and
smoke detectors were ripped out of the walls.
Chapter President Chris Osborne estimates that roughly a quarter of
Tau Kappa Epsilon’s brothers are Jewish. GW University President Thomas
J. LeBlanc condemned the act of hate in a statement, and crowds showed
solidarity with the fraternity at a rally later that week.
6.Illinois Urbana Champaign: Rock Thrown At Jewish Students and Hillel During SJP Protest
In April, SJP at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign held a
protest with roughly 75 people in attendance, directly outside the
campus Hillel. The protesters used bullhorns to project their speeches.
In response, Jewish students and faculty gathered on the Hillel patio,
played music and ate snacks.
Video then shows one of the protesters, identified as 23-year-old
Sayed A. Quaraishi, throwing rocks at the Jewish students on the patio.
Quaraishi is now being charged with a class 3 felony for a violent hate
crime. The charge carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.
7. UC San Diego: Antisemitism Vandalism Spikes After Speaker Praises Hamas
In May, a display at the University of California San Diego
highlighting the danger of antisemitism was vandalized with signs,
including one which accused Israel of apartheid. A swastika was also
found drawn on the school library’s bathroom wall.
That same week, the university, in accordance with SJP, brought Taher
Herzallah to speak on campus. Herzallah is the Director of Outreach for
American Muslims for Palestine and has stated his praise for the terror
group Hamas’ rocket attacks against Israel, describing them as
“…effective even though they don’t kill anyone.” He also once described
an image of a bloody Israeli soldier as “the most beautiful sight in my
eyes.”
Following Herzallah’s speaking engagement, more vandalism of Jewish
symbols on campus was reported, including a Star of David that was
defaced at the university’s Graffiti Park.
8. UCLA: Former Lecturer Threatens Mass Shooting, Releases 803-Page Antisemitic Manifesto
Matthew Harris, a former philosophy lecturer at the University of
California Los Angeles, was arrested in May after releasing an 803-paged
manifesto that made mass shooting threats against the school. Along
with espousing hatred and containing threats of violence towards Asians,
women, white people and various other groups, the manifesto targeted
Jews as well.
One line from the manifesto reads, “Violence against Jews should
happen. Retaliation and retribution for what they have stolen is
legitimate and a good thing.” Another line reads “Whites and Jews shall
die,” while one of the chapters of the manifesto is entitled, “The
perfect holocaust is a completed one.”
The manifesto repeatedly used antisemitic and racist slurs.
9. Boston U.: “Long Live the Intifada” Painted on Campus Landmark
Boston has already made headlines in recent months with its BDS chapter’s antisemitic mapping project.
However, antisemitism at universities in the area has been pervasive in
ways that have been ignored by the media. At Boston University in
December, members of SJP spray painted “Long Live the Intifada” on the
landmark BU rock on campus.
The message refers to two violent Palestinian uprisings, the second
of which featured several years of Palestinian suicide bombings of
Israeli civilians. SJP at BU proceeded to justify its message on
Instagram, writing in a post, “The Intifada is an action that lives
within the Palestinian people every day, and exists as a permanent
source of inspiration against Israeli occupation and apartheid.”
10. Yale: Speaker Claims FBI Inflates Jewish Hate Crime Statistics
Ericka Hart, a self-described diversity and sexuality trainer brought
to speak by the Yale Law Journal, spoke to law students in September on
topics such as racism and privilege. When asked by a law student why
she had not mentioned antisemitism as a form of discrimination amongst
the several other related topics brought up during the talk, she replied
that she had already covered antisemitism because some Jews are black.
Furthermore, she addressed FBI statistics that show that Jews are
victims of hate crimes more than any other group by suggesting that
those who compiled this data had an “agenda.” Three journal editors
described her presentation as “shocking,” “offensive,” and “upsetting,”
and 82 percent of those in attendance said she should not be invited
back to the school under any circumstance, according to a survey.
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