We reported Saturday that both the chancellor and provost of Rutgers-New Brunswick issued an apology to students the day after penning a letter condemning and pointing out the rise of anti-Semitism in America.
In the condemnation letter they posted Wednesday, Rutgers-New Brunswick Chancellor Christopher J. Molloy and Provost Francine Conway wrote that the “recent resurgence of anti-Semitism demands that we again call out and denounce acts of hate and prejudice against members of the Jewish community and any other targeted and oppressed groups on our campus and in our community.”
The letter referenced the current Israeli-Hamas conflict but in neutral terms while noting they hoped Rutgers could “serve as a model for institutions that respect and value the dignity of every human being.”
Not long after that letter went out, the Rutgers-New Brunswick chapter of the Students for Justice in Palestine group complained about how the letter of condemnation focused primarily on anti-Semitism instead of focusing on the alleged experiences of the Palestinian people. The group also demanded an apology.
They got one the following day. In it, Molloy and Conway said that “while the intent of our message was to affirm that Rutgers–New Brunswick is a place where all identities can feel validated and supported, the impact of the message fell short of that intention.”
“In hindsight,” they continued, “it is clear to us that the message failed to communicate support for our Palestinian community members. We sincerely apologize for the hurt that this message has caused.”
Not surprisingly, the apology letter was not enough for the members of the SJP, who are also proponents of the anti-Semitic BDS movement.
But sometime Saturday, Jonathan Holloway, who is the president of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, stepped in to address the controversy by overriding the apology letter from the New Brunswick leadership and posting a statement of his own:
Rutgers deplores hatred and bigotry in all forms. We have not, nor would we ever, apologize for standing against anti-Semitism.Neither hatred nor bigotry has a place at Rutgers, nor should they have a place anywhere in the world. At Rutgers we believe that anti-Semitism, anti-Hinduism, Islamophobia and all forms of racism, intolerance and xenophobia are unacceptable wherever and whenever they occur.
In addition to posting Holloway’s letter to their website, we learned via longtime blogger and Legal Insurrection reader Gary Fouse that Rutgers also apparently redirected the original two links from last week to his Saturday statement, which is why I’ve included the archived links to the original letters throughout this post.
Also, Chancellor Molloy still has his Twitter account on lockdown as of this writing, but Provost Conway’s account is still open for Twitter users to read and respond to.
Holloway’s statement was posted after the Jewish on Campus group went off on the university for reversing course on their original statement condemning anti-Semitism:
Regardless of what Holloway had to say, these comments from Ben Shapiro still hold true in my opinion, at least as far as Rutgers-New Brunswick is concerned:
The moral of the story here? As conservative talk show host Dana Loesch often says, never, ever bend the knee to left-wing outrage mobs. Ever.
Note: The headline and body of this post have been updated to reflect the precise campus. The original two letters came from Rutgers-New Brunswick. Holloway is the Rutgers University president.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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