Cornell University Police Department (CUPD) are actively investigating online posts on a website unaffiliated with Cornell University containing threats of violence directed at Jewish students across the New York-based campus.
“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 104 West to provide additional security as a precaution,” the student group 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.”
“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,” Ms. Pollack said.
“Our immediate focus is on keeping the community safe; we will continue to prioritize that,” she added.
According to Ms. Pollack, CUPD will remain on-site to ensure students and community members are safe. The FBI has also been notified of a potential hate crime.
Jewish Students Feel Terrified, Abandoned
Cornell student leader Annie Vail took to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, to share screenshots of some of the messages on a Cornell discussion forum calling for extreme violence against Jewish people. She also revealed that Jewish students are scared to leave their rooms in the wake of the threats.Another Cornell student, Zoe Bernstein, and the president of the student group “Cornellians For Israel” told the Jerusalem Post that the climate on campus had been increasingly tense since everyone returned on Oct. 10 after the Fall break.
Ms. Bernstein says it’s “terrifying to be a Jewish college student right now” and that the shared sentiment among students across campuses right now is they have been 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,” he said.
Universities Already in Hot Water
Universities across the United States have found themselves in hot water over comments made by staff and students regarding the war. Several Harvard student organizations in the United States had backtracked on support for an Oct. 8 open letter justifying the actions of Hamas in its war against Israel after intense backlash.Authored and publicly released by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) through its Instagram page, the letter was co-signed by more than 30 other student organizations and stated they held “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”
Russell Rickford, an associate professor of history at Cornell University, went viral on Oct. 15 for a rant that saw him say he was initially “exhilarated” by Hamas’s attack on Israel.
“This is a reprehensible comment that demonstrates no regard whatsoever for humanity,” the statement read. “The University is taking this incident seriously and is currently reviewing it consistent with our procedures.”