NY cops nab suspect for threats to kill Jews at Cornell, amid antisemitism crackdown
Posts on college’s Greek life page threatened to target kosher dining hall, slit throats of Jewish students; Governor Hochul orders series of steps to curb anti-Jewish climate
Luke Tress is a JTA reporter and a former editor and reporter in New York for The Times of Israel.
New York Jewish Week via JTA — US police have taken a suspect into custody over threats to kill Jewish students at Cornell University over the weekend, Governor Kathy Hochul’s office said Tuesday, as her office announced a series of measures to combat antisemitism on campuses and elsewhere in New York.
New York State police detained the Cornell suspect for questioning on Tuesday after identifying the individual earlier in the day, Hochul said, a day after she visited Jewish students at the university in a show of support.
Anonymous antisemitic threats posted to a Greek life website over the weekend threatened to “shoot up” Cornell’s kosher dining hall and included comments such as “jewish people need to be killed” and “eliminate jewish living from cornell campus.”
“If i see a pig male jew i will stab you and slit your throat,” read a post by a user called “hamas.”
Police were called to the dining hall, and the campus Hillel warned students to avoid the building after the threats.
“When I met with Cornell students yesterday, I promised them we would do everything possible to find the perpetrator,” Hochul said as she announced the suspect was in custody. “Public safety is my top priority and I’m committed to combating hate and bias wherever it rears its ugly head.”
Hochul also announced a series of measures to combat hate crimes and antisemitism in New York.
The governor ordered a third-party review of antisemitism and discrimination policies at New York City’s massive public university system, the City University of New York. The school system has been an antisemitism battleground in recent years, with some Jewish students and faculty alleging discrimination and harassment and demanding action from the administration. Much of the strife across the system’s 25 colleges centers on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Jewish students saying anti-Israel criticism often veers into antisemitism, and pro-Palestinian activists decrying alleged attacks on free speech.
Judge Jonathan Lippman, a former chief judge on the New York Court of Appeals, will lead the review of CUNY antisemitism. The probe will look into the campus environment; policies, procedures, and handling of antisemitism complaints; and balancing free speech rights with antisemitism.
Last May, a student speaker at the CUNY School of Law graduation praised the school as a place where students could “speak out against Israeli settler colonialism,” said Israel was “indiscriminately raining bullets and bombs on worshipers,” and blamed “donors” and “investors” for stifling anti-Israel criticism. Two weeks later, CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodríguez and the board of trustees denounced Fatima Mousa Mohammed’s remarks as “hate speech.” The previous year, radical pro-Palestinian activist Nerdeen Kiswani delivered a similar speech at the law school graduation.
“We will take on the antisemitism we have seen on college campuses,” Hochul said during a press conference Tuesday. “The problem didn’t begin with the weeks following the October 7 massacre. It’s been growing on a number of campuses and seen most acutely in the City University of New York.”
CUNY said in response to the announcement, “We will cooperate with Judge Lippman’s review as we work to build on the progress we’ve made combating antisemitism across our campuses.”
“As an institution of higher learning and one of the country’s most diverse universities, CUNY has taken many steps to combat hate, discrimination and intolerance in all forms, important work which we continue every day,” a CUNY spokesperson told the New York Jewish Week.
The US Department of Education is investigating CUNY’s Brooklyn College over alleged antisemitism in a probe announced last year.
In addition to the CUNY review, the state’s division of criminal justice services will distribute $50 million for law enforcement agencies statewide to acquire new technology and equipment to better solve and prevent hate crimes, and $25 million in grants for securing communities against hate crimes, a program to boost protection as nonprofit organizations and other sites.
The state will also expand its social media analysis unit to better monitor violent threats against schools and campuses.
Antisemitic incidents have spiked in New York City and the United States since the start of the war in Israel, according to data collated by the New York Police Department and Jewish security groups. Jews are targeted in hate crimes in the city more than any other group.
The war erupted after 2,500 gunmen from Hamas and allied terror groups broke through the Gaza border in a multipronged attack and killed over 1,400 people, most of them civilians slaughtered in their homes and at an outdoor music festival.
At least 245 civilians and soldiers were kidnapped, of whom four have been released by Hamas, while a soldier has been rescued by security forces.
Israel has responded with intense strikes on Gaza and a gradually expanding ground operation, declaring its intention to eradicate the terror group that rules the Strip.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
