Jewish students at Rutgers are accusing the Biden administration of ending what they see as an amicable deal with the university that freed it for allowing a persistent culture of anti-Semitism.
The settlement, announced Jan. 2 by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, requires Rutgers take a series of actions to combat discrimination on campus after 400 reports of hate-filled incidents on campus were filed between July 2023 and June 2024, nearly three-quarters of which alleged discrimination and harassment against Jews or Israelis.
In one such incident, a student wrote an inflammatory post on social media inciting violence against an Israeli attending the university with information on how to find them. In another report, a Jewish student’s dorm room was found to have been vandalized with a swastika painted on the front of the dorm and a mezuzah damaged. Members of the Jewish Brotherhood claimed they were threatened because of their faith in another report.
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A “Glory to our Martyrs” sign is seen leaning against a tree on the Rutgers Newark campus. (Christopher L. D’Alessandro)
As part of the settlement, Rutgers agreed to issue a statement to students and employees stating that discrimination will not be tolerated on campus and that it will review past reports of discrimination to determine if further action is necessary to comply with Title IX. .
However, many students at Rutgers feel the agreement falls far short of what is needed to protect them from the relentless onslaught of anti-Semitism unleashed on campus since Oct. 7.
Camilla Vaynberg, vice president of Rutgers Students Supporting Israel, tells Fox News Digital that the measures adopted by Rutgers are unlikely to stem the tide of anti-Semitism on campus, and may not even be implemented after current president Jonathan Holloway. steps down.
“Personally, I think the university is let off the hook, that’s the promise we had before.” Vaynberg said.
“Will agreements be reached between [Holloway] and his faculty and Department of Education remain the same regardless of who takes his place?”
“A lot of what Rutgers agreed to includes ‘statements’ and ‘reviews,’ but they’ve been stating and re-examining things left and right since October 7th, and yet the rate of anti-Semitic incidents at Rutgers continues to rise,” Ben Stern, 20, said political science sophomore for Fox News Digital.
“The DOE spent a year working on more than 400 complaints of discrimination, and on the way out signed another toothless agreement that does literally nothing to protect anyone. It’s official; this administration has completely failed the American Jewish community,” National Jewish Advocacy Director center Mark Goldfeder said.
“I think this settlement is a long way from what needs to happen to solve the problems of anti-Semitism at Rutgers,” Stern lamented.
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Rutgers University students set up a Gaza solidarity camp at the University of New Jersey Rutgers-Newark campus in Newark, United States on May 21, 2024. (Photo by Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Some critics argue that the settlement was an attempt by the Biden administration to prevent the incoming Trump administration from taking far harsher punitive measures against the university.
“It’s shameful that in the final days of the Biden-Harris administration, universities, including Rutgers … are being let off the hook.” Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Workforce Committee, said in a statement released Thursday.
Trump vowed that his administration would strip colleges of their accreditation and federal support if they did not stop teaching “anti-Semitic propaganda,” at a conference on combating anti-Semitism in Washington, DC, in September.
“The Biden administration has once again proven that it does not care about anti-Semitism in America. It’s no coincidence that [they] announced these long-awaited decisions just 2 weeks before leaving office,” said former Rutgers Hillel Director Andrew Getraer.
“It’s a weak deal,” Rutgers junior Joe Gindi told Fox News Digital.
“I am incredibly disappointed in the Biden administration for making this deal with Rutgers. This deal is far from ending the hatred at our state university,” Gindi said.
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Rutgers students occupy tents and hold rallies outside Murray Hall as part of a protest in support of Palestinians affected by the Gaza war. (Alexander Lewis / MyCentralJersey / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Jewish students are sounding the alarm over persistent anti-Semitism at the university in the year since Hamas launched its genocidal attacks on October 7 in which the terror group killed more than 1,200 and kidnapped hundreds more.
LGBTQ Orthodox Jewish student Rivka Schafer sued the school after her face appeared on an anti-Israel flyer pasted on the right outside their dorm.
“The message to Schafer and other Jewish students was clear: ‘Don’t support Israel, we know where you sleep,'” their complaint read.
New Jersey attorney Rajeh A. Saadeh, a fellow at Rutgers University’s Center on Security, Race, and Rights, has routinely shared sickening videos of Hamas terrorists killing IDF soldiers on his Instagram, declaring it “hunting season” in headlines, the New York Post reported.
Rutgers, the Biden White House and the Department of Education did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
