Jews at Cornell Put on Lockdown After Threats Against Them

Jewish students at Cornell University have been put on a partial lockdown after hateful messages were posted on the college’s discussion forum, some of which called for physical violence against them, The Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday.

One of the messages posted to the forum at the university, located in Ithaca, New York, said we are “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!”

Following the threats, Cornell’s Hillel released a statement that “Cornell Hillel is 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.

“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.”

Zoe Bernstein, the president of the group Cornellians For Israel, told The Jerusalem Post that “the climate on campus has been incredibly fraught” recently and tensions “neared a boiling point this past week.”

Bernstein said that “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 same day, “droves of students marched around campus chanting ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free … 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.”

Such messages included “if you see a jewish ‘person’ on campus, follow them home and slit their throats. rats need to be elimination from cornell.”

Another read, “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.”

Bernstein added to The Jerusalem Post, “We ultimately have just a strong sense of feeling let down by the university. We feel like they didn’t do the best job that they could have — just unequivocally condemning violence and antisemitism and hateful speech from the get-go.

“We have seen peer universities take strong stances as to say what Hamas is doing as a terrorist organization is wrong.”

Cornell President Martha Pollack sent an email to the entire campus saying, “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. Our immediate focus is on keeping the community safe; we will continue to prioritize that,” according to Legal Insurrection.

The email continued, “We will not tolerate antisemitism at Cornell. During my time as president, I have repeatedly denounced bigotry and hatred, both on and off our campus. The virulence and destructiveness of antisemitism is real and deeply impacting our Jewish students, faculty, and staff, as well as the entire Cornell community. This incident highlights the need to combat the forces that are dividing us and driving us toward hate. This cannot be what defines us at Cornell.”