Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., notified the FBI of a potential hate crime after antisemitic messages threatening the school’s Jewish community and referencing the ongoing Israel-Gaza war were posted to an online forum on Sunday.
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The threats specifically named one university building, the Cornell Center for Jewish Living, the university’s president, Martha E. Pollack, said in a statement Sunday.
Cornell Police were immediately notified about the “series of horrendous, antisemitic messages” and are investigating the matter, Pollack said. “Police will continue to remain on site to ensure our students and community members are safe.”
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
New York Attorney General Letitia James retweeted screenshots of the messages, which were posted to the Cornell discussion board on a website for Greek life and largely downvoted.
One post called Jewish students “rats” and said, “If you see a Jewish ‘person’ on campus follow them home and slit their throats.” Another post was titled “gonna shoot up 104 west,” an apparent reference to Cornell’s kosher and multicultural dining room.
“There is no space for antisemitism or violence of any kind,” James said. “Campuses must remain safe spaces for our students.”
The messages directed at the Jewish community at Cornell are the latest in a string of incidents that have rattled college campuses since the attack on Israel by Hamas militants killed more than 1,400 people on Oct. 7, according to Israeli authorities. Since then, Israeli attacks have killed at least 8,005 people in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Earlier this month, someone wrote “Free Palestine” outside a Jewish fraternity house at Georgia Tech, The Washington Post reported. At Stanford University, an instructor asked Jewish and Israeli students to stand in the corner of a classroom, the Jewish news organization the Forward reported. And at Cornell during a rally, a professor declared that, while he abhorred violence, he felt “exhilarated” by Hamas’s attack, the Cornell Daily Sun, a student newspaper, reported.