Jewish students at Cornell University, school’s president says
Cornell University police are investigating a series of antisemitic threats made against the school’s Jewish community in online posts over the weekend, its president announced.

“Earlier today, a series of horrendous, antisemitic messages threatening violence to our Jewish community and specifically naming 104 West — the home of the Center for Jewish Living — was posted on a website unaffiliated with Cornell,” President Martha E. Pollack said in a statement Sunday.

The online messages surfaced Sunday and included threats to shoot Jewish students at the 104 West building, which houses their kosher dining hall, and messaging encouraging others to harm Jews, according to the school’s student newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun.

Students protest at Columbia University in New York City, US, on October 12, 2023.
Columbia University postpones major fundraiser amid tensions over Israel-Hamas war
The threats come amid rising tensions on college campuses across the US as the war between Israel and Hamas rages on in the Middle East. At many universities, students are engaging in fervent protests as some administrators — including those at elite institutions such as Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania — grapple with how to acknowledge students’ wide-ranging concerns while also fielding backlash from influential donors demanding colleges take a clearer stance on the conflict.

Antisemitic incidents in the US increased nearly 400% in the days after the October 7 attacks by Hamas, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

New York State police will increase their security on Cornell’s campus following the threats, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday, calling those who made the threats, “terrorists” and warned that anyone making threats “will get no refuge.”

Speaking alongside Pollack at Cornell’s Center for Jewish Living, Hochul said she had talked with Cornell students in response to the threats and said state police will be “increasing our (Cornell’s) security opportunities as well .”READ MORE