Toxic Atmosphere At Cornell For Jewish Students Is Getting Worse
My appearance on the Laura Ingraham show: “we’ve got a toxic atmosphere and Cornell and other schools need to consider whether this hyper focus, this obsession with race is actually making matters worse. I know that at Cornell it’s making matters a lot worse for Jewish students. And the school needs to get a handle on this and scale it back.”
I appeared on Laura Ingraham’s show tonight to discuss the vile pro-terrorist hysteria sweeping campuses after the Hamas butchery, torture, and rape of over 1400 Israelis on October 7, 2023.
I focused not only on the protests, but also the how the racialist DEI obsession is isolating Jewish students and making the situation much worse. I pointed to may call for action by the Board of Trustees that has been ignored.
Transcript (Auto-generated, may contain transcription errors)
Video (00:02): “We don’t want Israel to exist. We don’t want these Zionist counter protestors to exist.”
Ingraham (00:07):
That video from the University of Washington kind of says it all, and that’s what campuses are like for Jewish students and faculty right now. And in some cases it gets worse with the FBI having to get involved after vile threats targeting Jewish students surfaced at Cornell University. Now one of these threats called for people to follow a Jewish person home and slit their throats. Another one apparently said rats need to be eliminated from Cornell.
Joining me now is William Jacobson Cornell Law professor, founder of Legal Insurrection. Professor, you know, you’ve seen antisemitism on the Cornell campus before. This is so bad. It almost seems, it almost seems cartoonish. I mean, the threats are ridiculous and horrible, but it’s beyond the pale. But should anyone be surprised?
WAJ (01:00):
Well, nobody should be surprised. Of course, we don’t know who made these threats, but it’s consistent with what is happening on campuses across the country since October 7th when Hamas butchered 1400 people and mutilated people. And those are being celebrated on campuses. There are cheers for it. At George Washington University, they projected on a building ‘glory to the martyrs’. And even at Cornell, there have been marchers in favor of what Hamas did and against Israel. So this is nothing like we’ve ever seen. Something has gone very wrong at Cornell and other college campuses that we have people actually cheering on Hamas butchery
Ingraham (01:40):
Professor, today Fox’s Peter Ducey asked the White House about what’s going on on these campuses. Watch
[Video]
Ingraham (02:11):
Professor, do you think that given the propaganda that so many of these young people have consumed on social media and in the classroom, TikTok of course funded by the Chinese, are young people doomed? Or is there a backlash coming?
WAJ (02:29):
Well, I think there’s a backlash coming, particularly against the very racialist DEI policies that feed a lot of this. I mean, we see it at Cornell. Things have gotten a lot worse on campus since three years ago. The university adopted an extremely aggressive DEI programming where everything is viewed through race. Everybody views things through their identity, and Jews get left on the side because they create coalitions based on race and against ‘white’ Israel, which of course is a false way of describing it.
And so we’ve got a toxic atmosphere. Cornell and other schools need to consider whether this hyperfocus, this obsession with race is actually making matters worse. I know that at Cornell it’s making matters a lot worse for Jewish students. And the school needs to get a handle on this and scale it back.
Ingraham (03:19):
I think most students just want to learn and enjoy their college years. I really think that, and I’ve been to a lot of college campuses and it, it is a small fringe, but they really do dominate. And I know you were attacked professor when you criticize the BLM riots. Uh, you don’t, you don’t get that same condemnation from some of the colleges about some of these types of rallies and the language that’s being used.
WAJ (03:46):
No. How absurd is that? That I get condemned with attempts to fire me three years ago for objecting to rioting and looting, okay, <laugh>. and there were people marching all over the place saying, ‘glory to the martyrs’ who don’t get condemned by the colleges and no action is taken. Really, this whole racialist DEI anti-racism structure has caused such dysfunction on colleges, has really balkanized the colleges. And it’s true at Cornell.
And I issued a call for the Board of Trustees at Cornell to get involved and they’ve completely ignored me. I said, stop this, scale this back. What is happening is so dangerous, and we’re seeing it play out in real time. But the administration and the Board of trustees don’t seem to understand what they have created.
Ingraham (04:36):
Monsters, they created a monster. And you know, this is where the big donors actually do, you know, they hear the big donors when they say, we’re not, we’re cutting off their donations. Now you’re gonna see more and more of that professor. Thank you.
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Comments
Toxic atmosphere at Cornell for Jewish students:
Can you imagine how much worse it would be at Cornell if Professor Jacobson were not there?
Can you imagine a college professor publicly stating he was exhilarated and energized when he heard Jewish babies had their heads cut off and that Jewish women were raped and burned alive? Can you imagine that in order to get out of it, all he had to do was say, “Sorry” and everything is okay?
Is it not incongruent for a BLM supporter who believes his life matters because he is black to contend that Jews Lives Don’t Matter because they’re white?
Isn’t it hypocritical to believe one color of life matters, but another color doesn’t? And Cornell will still allow you to teach?
No wonder Professor Jacobson says Cornell atmosphere is toxic.
To me, what’s most troubling and indicative of the problems that lie ahead is the solitary nature of Prof. Jacobson’s voice. I can promise you most American college campuses today, to particularly include the ‘elite’ schools,’ do NOT have a William Jacobson on them. Those kinds of professors are very few and very far between.
Ahh, yes. But, they seem to treasure their Cornell Wests.
My first thought when I read this piece was how long before Cornell’s radical, anti-semite-obsessed graduate school faculty demand our good professor’s removal from his position and be fired?
Be safe Professor Jacobson but please continue to speak your voice on behalf of American Jews and Israel. Make no mistake, Cornell is a modern-day Gettysburg, and you, sir, are Joshua Chamberlain
It’s not just on campus. Antisemitism is rampant. At one conservative site, there’s a story about threats received by a Jewish journalist, and too many comments reek of bigotry against Jews, Bigotry in general has become mainstream in the culture. It never ends with Jews.
When Taylor Swift is the biggest thing going, it tells you how easy it is to poison an individual, and in some places where the poison already exists, it’s even easier. How easy to blame the Jew and hide the real poison.
Any day at American Renaissance, one can find ant-Semitic remarks in the comments. At least to me, a lot of them read like a variation on the theme blacks use when they blame their own shortcomings on the white man beez keepin’ dem down.
In short, losers.
I can’t help from picturing some beer-swilling nothing who never applied himself, and has not opened a book since leaving school. MAYBE a Bible on Sunday, but nothing else. They care far more about their son’s performance on the ball field than his grades. Meantime, the Jewish kids at school are in the library or on the internet looking up this or that bit of information to learn, and to finish a school assignment.
So you
Think it’s rednecks doing this?
Lol, wrong group
PJ Media’s comment section is a hotbed of antisemitism too.
It all comes down to how much parents want the ivy brand. Should the schools muzzle speech or state that which they don’t believe? Better they freely make their vile statements and parents withdraw their children or fail to let them apply to these repulsive institutions. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
People will want that brand for as long as it is a gatekeeper to the rich people’s club. That hasn’t changed.
That’s the part that’s a real shame. A fictional demonstration of that was the television program Suits. The firm only hired from Haahvahd.
As for me: if I had some sort of case going on where I needed legal counsel, I would FAR prefer the SKILLED attorney from a Regent’s College or Loyola Marymount night school than the Haahvahd or Yale grads who judge each other by the cut of their suits or the trendiness of their leased “bespoke” cars.
When students spread racist hate shouldn’t that affect their GPA at least? Maybe the schools should conduct one of their “trials” and kick the students out? Isn’t racist s peach worse than sexual harassment?
If they’re state schools they can’t penalize students’ speech.
And no, legally the expression of offensive opinions is not worse than harassment, whether sexual or otherwise. The first is protected, the second is illegal.
Had the usual ninnies on the quad at Chicago with the usual chants and foolishness.
And of course there are the usual reports of leftist/pro-Hamas physical attacks against Jewish students and supporters. I wish for once that there were reports of the Jewish students and supporters kicking the living crap out of their attackers. You can’t be passive victims with people who want to kill you.
i fear that when the time comes, these Jews on campus will be the ones willingly climbing into the trucks rather than putting up a fight. Sure, fighting back makes them dead. But, where did they think the truck was taking them? The 21st century version of Grosinger’s?
You don’t need to be Jewish (I am not) to be very concerned in witnessing this hatred and rampant antisemitism (pretty much by the left) on our college campuses. Unfortunately, this has now permeated beyond these “institutions of higher learning”. I am sure many Jews here in the U.S. are looking over their shoulder and being a lot less in the open. This is frightening and there is no easy answer.
I’m surprised that we haven’t had idiot protesters at the University of Illinois. So far all we’ve had are some cowards who have ripped down the posters of kidnapped victims. Right now our protesters are too busy walking in solidarity to compel our State’s Attorney to prosecute some police.
I am too. There tends to be appreciable Arab populations on many Midwest college campuses especially in MN, MI, IN & OH. My presumption was that must be true for IL & WI. But, perhaps it’s not, for whatever reasons.
Of course, DEI makes it easier to obtain Federal funding providing the universities play by the DOE’s rules. And, it’s decidedly by Obama’s vision and design to transform America. His words, not mine.
1. Minneapolis-St Paul: University of Minnesota
2. Madison: University of Wisconsin at Madison
3. Iowa City: Unversity of Iowa
4. Columbus: Ohio State University
5. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
6. East Lansing: Michigan State University
This is what happens when DEI runs the campus
“This is what happens when DEI runs the campus”…in swing states.
If you’re a Jewish student at Cornell, why would you want to continue to pay $$$$ at a place where you aren’t safe
There are lots of fine colleges. In America and around the world
Another option would be to take a few months off from school to reassess things. Maybe go volunteer in Israel — during the current crisis I’d imagine they could use all the help they can get. Doing any number of things from the heroic to the mundane.
In Israel if you get stabbed at least somebody will care. In the USA if you get stabbed, it’ll probably get recorded as an accident you had during preparation of your dinner.
Assuming Trump gets elected, one of the things he should announce the first day is the prompt and complete phase out of all government support for higher education. There is no reason why my tax dollars–or anyone else’s–should be supporting this bullshiat.
Hopefully, Cornell has taken steps to assure Professor Jacobson and other Jewish staff are safe on and near the campus.
Rrriiiggghhhttt!
It’s not hard to guess how the media will respond if Jewish students are seriously hurt or killed by these ignorant yahoos. “Well, we do feel bad for what’s-his-name but the REAL concern is the Islamophobic backlash!”
In the woke/progressive narrative of oppressor v oppressed Israel is guilty of ‘settler colonialism’. In the view of the woke weirdo Israel ‘occupies land stolen from the indigenous Palestinians’. The majority of the Israelis are labeled as ‘white’ so that’s another strike. The Israelis, despite their good faith attempts at diplomacy, haven’t just rolled over or given up, they won’t simply surrender. That’s another strike. They are, in modern terms, far more religious than the population of other Nations. Another strike.
IMO, those facts are the real motivation of the woke, weirdos. That’s not to say antisemitism doesn’t play a big role here. It absolutely does. The antisemitic views of the lefty woke weirdo are wide and deep. That antisemitism is the uniting force that holds the bizarre coalition of the lefty weirdos together in this. Consider the absurdity of ‘trans’ folks expressing support for Hamas as an example of how the antisemitic glue of the left binds unlikely voices together to oppose Israel and support Hamas.
Judaism is largely irrelevant. The narrative seen by the masses is White colonists oppressing Brown indigenous Palestinians – and this narrative does have some kernels of truth in it. The complicated historic details of Jewish and Palestine history are also largely irrelevant. The Israelis are simply unlucky enough to be colonists during an era where the Palestinians can get substantial foreign support, a thing that was not available to the American Indian 250 years ago. Might makes right in this world, and a lot of big foreign players see geopolitical advantages in backing one side or the other.
Jews in Israel are not colonists. They are the indigenous people who have returned home. It’s the Arabs who are colonists.
Imagine Indians traveling back from Oklahoma to Tennessee and buying farms there, only to be shot at by their white neighbors until they’re forced to fight to defend themselves and end up in control of a large area, where they declare independence.
“We don’t know who did it.”
I bet if the FBI really tried hard, they could narrow it down. Somehow whenever it’s a conservative, they’re able to do a very competent investigation and bring them to trial.
Well I have to eat my hat. They identified a suspect and he’s being charged.
Cornell has a Code of Student Conduct. They bloody well need to enforce it. Nevermind “the cause” – just unilaterally enforce the policy already on the books!!
You hit upon one of the major contributing factors; lack of enforcement. IMO, the academic woke, woke weirdo, progressives and their acolytes seem to have topped out their emotional and psychological development the relativism stage. That’s why they push BS about cultures being equal. Its why they abhor societal judgement or shame. In their view everyone should be able to do or say whatever they wish but without any judgement or criticism from individuals or society at large much less any actual consequences being imposed on them.
But you see that’s inequitable, because the Jewish students rarely break such codes of reasonable behavior.
The silence and the inaction of Cornell’s Board of Trustees “speaks volumes” about those who are members of the Board. They may hide behind so-called freedom of speech of those who support the Hamas terrorists (by claiming to be nothing more than “proPalestinian” people) … but they support anti-Semitism at the university they are supposed to support and protect. SHAME on the Board of Trustees!
Cornell is just reflecting the national environment. Students have been conditioned to think in racial terms, and a majority of students today are non-White. Therefore, they will naturally identify with the Palestinians, as will their White girlfriends. Unfortunately, Jewish students are going to have a hard time, and may want to invest in self defense classes and get concealed carry permits in states where that option is available for college students. The only good thing that might come out of this is that it could tear the Democratic Party apart. I expect 1968-like riots to occur at the Democratic National Convention – which will be held in Chicago again.
I posted this elsewhere, but it bears repeating in this article:
I am a full supporter of Israel, and against antisemitism, but I find the Progressive Liberal Jewish community’s shock, SHOCK at the unhinged antisemitism and violence a bit disingenuous. This same community, including no small number of Cornell professors, have led the decades long effort to tear down America and it’s culture and actions in the world, and attack the fabric that was our strength. They were fellow travelers with the progressive Left on EVERY SINGLE ISSUE, save this one, and now are shocked and dismayed to find these people empowered, and America not the healthy, safe, cohesive bastion they helped denigrate & tear down. This same “Progressive” community, let by many a Jewish American Liberal, pushed unfettered third world immigration, including that of a group that has never immigrated in large numbers, ANYWHERE, without causing major problems, yet Jews led the way in shouting down ANYONE questioning the wisdom of those policies.
Where was Cornell’s Jewish community, Professors, Students, Parents, Alumni, when Conservative voices were shouted down & disinvited? Please save the “they came for me” speech until you live it.