Jewish students at Cornell University in the United States were exposed to violent death threats on the university’s discussion forum; many of the messages called for sexual violence against the Jewish women. One such message has led to a police presence on the campus, as a currently unknown forum user has threatened to "shoot up" the building containing Jewish resources.
“if you see a jewish ‘person’ on campus, follow them home and slit their throats. rats need to be elimination from Cornell [sic]” one message on the forum read.
Another post said “the genocidal fascist zionist regime will be destroyed. rape and kill all the jew women, before they birth more jewish hitlers. jews are excrement on the face of the earth. no jew civilian is innocent of genocide [sic].”
In another concerning post to the forum, one user wrote they were “gonna shoot up 104 west”, which is where the kosher dining hall is located. The message also read “allahu akbar! from the river to the sea, palestine will be free! glory to hamas! liberation by any means necessary! [sic]”
Currently on a @Cornell discussion forum, the kosher dining hall (104 west) is now on lockdown and Jewish students are scared to leave their rooms. @GovKathyHochul @HenMazzig pic.twitter.com/MsK4y34zf6
— Annie Vail (@AnnieSun16) October 29, 2023
Cornell's Hillel responds
Cornell’s Hillel released a statement in response to the threat. They wrote that they are “aware of a threatening statement that was directed toward the building at 104West, which houses the university’s kosher and multicultural dining hall, as well as more generally toward Jewish students, faculty, and staff.
“The Cornell University administration has been made aware of this concerning language, and the Cornell Police Department is monitoring the situation and is on-site at 104West to provide additional security as a precaution," they said.
“At this time, we advise that students and staff avoid the building out of an abundance of caution. We will continue to provide updates as additional information becomes available.”
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The climate on Cornell University's campus
Zoe Bernstein, the president of the group "Cornellians For Israel," told The Jerusalem Post that "The climate on campus has been incredibly fraught since students returned from Fall break on October 10th. With each week that has passed, students have felt tensions rising and they have neared a boiling point this past week.
"On Wednesday morning Jewish students awoke to our beautiful campus vandalized by hateful and incendiary graffiti to the tune of "F*** Israel," "Israel is Fascist," and "Zionism= Genocide."
"Later that day, droves of students marched around campus chanting 'From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free,' an age-old call for violence," she said. "Then, today, students were appalled and deeply troubled to find countless posts that threatened the physical, and importantly psychological, safety of Cornell's Jewish community.
"It is terrifying to be a Jewish college student right now, plain and simple. A shared sentiment among Cornellians, and across campuses right now is that we feel abandoned. We feel as though, if any other minority group was experiencing half of what we have since October 7th, their cries for help and support would have been heeded and addressed more promptly, and with greater force and decisiveness than what we have experienced," Bernstein said.
"Seeing posts that spout out classic antisemitic tropes like referring to Jews as rats, that call for our peers to slit the throats of Jewish students, kill us on our walk to class, or rape women is nauseating and unfathomable. It is unlike anything we have experienced in our lifetimes and we don't know what to do," she said.
"Many of these antisemitic tropes we have been hearing across campus conjure up feelings of generational trauma among Jewish students, many of whom come from families that were persecuted in Europe during the pogroms of the '20s, the Holocaust, or expelled from their homes in Arab countries after Israel declared independence. These cruel words actively make students feel unsafe and, quite frankly, unwelcome in an institution committed to 'any person, any study,' and it is extremely hard for us to grapple with this reality," the Cornellians president said.
"We are extremely grateful to the Cornell University Police Department for rapidly mobilizing to ensure the safety of every student and we call on the Cornell community at large to stand with the Jewish community of Cornell and unequivocally condemn this parasitic speech."