American university campuses are now ground zero for a wave of antisemitism unparalleled in the post-World War II era. At least 1,200 antisemitic incidents have been reported at college campuses in the year since Hamas brutally invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Anti-Defamation League: a sickening 500% increase over the preceding year.
A case in point is the ugly crime that just took place at the University of Rochester, where a cohort of anti-Israel students harassed and slandered primarily Jewish faculty and staff members with a series of demeaning and threatening posters labeled “Wanted,” like something out of the Wild West vigilante era. Such cruelty is not OK in the America I know and believe in. The most serious response is needed here: this vile action must be prosecuted as the hate crime it is.
The posters accuse Jewish faculty and staff of such outrageous offenses as genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes. University of Rochester President Sarah Mangelsdorf warned that “several of those depicted appear to have been targeted because they are members of our Jewish community.”
She continued by recognizing it explicitly as a form of hate: “We view this as antisemitism, which will not be tolerated at our University.” Mangelsdorf herself, according to her “Wanted” poster, is accused of “Genocide, Censorship, [and] Despotism.”
As Joy Getnick, Hillel executive director, pointed out: “They disproportionately singled out Jewish faculty and staff, and used language that spreads harmful, antisemitic ideas about Jewish people and Jewish indigeneity.” This horrific mistreatment has a profound chilling effect on the freedoms and security of Jewish and pro-Israel students, faculty, and staff, effectively telling them that they may be targeted in such a nasty way at any time merely for their ethnicity, religion, or beliefs.
We do not have a simple instance of campus flyers affixed with Scotch tape here, but a deeply malevolent and destructive act. The University of Rochester Department of Public Safety noted that “return[ing] the spaces to their usual state… is painstaking because of the strong adhesive used to affix the posters, which in some cases caused damage to walls, floors, chalkboards, and other surfaces.”
Vandalism and destruction of public property is a serious criminal act in any case; here, the situation is so much worse because of the hateful intent behind it.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, speaking on the floor of the U.S. Senate, called the posters “antisemitic intimidation,” and he rightly continued that “Any attempt — any attempt — to threaten or target someone simply because of their Jewish identity is antisemitism, plain and simple.”
In a statement, the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester rightly agreed, saying: “These horrific flyers… were replete with lies, misinformation, and antisemitic tropes. We are deeply disturbed by these antisemitic posters… These hateful messages are not isolated incidents but part of a troubling pattern that has created an environment where Jewish members of the university community feel both unsafe and that their civil rights have been disregarded.”
The University of Rochester’s Department of Public Safety has now arrested four individuals as suspected perpetrators of this incident, and the Monroe County district attorney’s office has charged them with felony criminal mischief. The miscreants have pleaded not guilty, and other anti-Israel activists are “rallying” to call this act of discrimination an exercise of free speech. They couldn’t be more wrong. What this is, in fact, is a hate crime.
Under New York Penal Code Chapter 40, Part 4, Title Y, Section 485.05, part of the Hate Crimes Act of 2000, a person commits a hate crime when they commit an offense and either intentionally selects the victim because of a belief or perception regarding their ancestry, religion, etc., or intentionally commits the offense in because of a belief or perception regarding victim’s ancestry, religion, etc. Both factors are clearly at play in this incident.
It is entirely unacceptable for the DA to fail to enforce the Hate Crimes Act, given the circumstances of this upsetting event. Serious crimes merit serious consequences, not for arbitrarily punitive reasons, but to ensure the safety of our Jewish and pro-Israel students, faculty, and staff around the country.
This foul deed was a hate crime, and it should be charged and prosecuted as such to the fullest extent of the law.
Savetsky, a member of the New York City Jewish Advisory Council, works with numerous nonprofit and philanthropic movements as an outspoken advocate for Israel and the Jewish people.
