Jewish Cooper Union Students: ‘I Felt Unsafe and Unprotected’
“I was crying. I think if the doors weren’t locked — I don’t know what would have happened.”
Jewish Cooper Union students spoke to The New York Post on Thursday, a day after anti-Jew protesters barricaded them in the school library.
Taylor Roslyn Lent, a sophomore chemical engineering student, said she and almost 50 other students stayed in the library after an employee locked the door.
The rally should have stayed outside the school, but the students, around 20 to 70, pushed through security, where they should have scanned their IDs.
Who even knows if all of them were students?
This is scary:
“I can say that I felt unsafe and unprotected,” Lent, a chemical engineering major, told The Post Thursday. “I would like the university to admit what went on and not avoid the topic. I was shocked that I was experiencing this at my private university — in America — in 2023.”
Lent said she and other Jewish students inside the library feared for their safety as protesters — including some carrying Palestinian flags and signs reading “Zionism Hands Off Our Universities” — descended on the building.
—
Of the 50 students inside, a small group were Jews, and they “were full of fear, some crying,” Lent recalled Thursday.The Post reported Wednesday there was a group of 11 Jewish students in the library.
Lent said, “I mainly fear for my safety on campus and in my school buildings.”
A senior, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the protesters yelled “antisemitic rhetoric” as they taunted the students:
“When they started banging on the door, my heart started pounding,” the student told The Post Wednesday. “I was crying. I think if the doors weren’t locked — I don’t know what would have happened.”
Another student said the protesters yelled, “Long live the Intifada.”
Cooper Union alumnus Solomon Rosenzweig’s 22-year-old-daughter was at the library:
Solomon Rosenzweig, an alumnus of Cooper Union, said his 22-year-old daughter — a senior at the university whom he requested not be identified due to safety fears — was also inside the library as dozens of demonstrators chanted “Palestine will be free.”
Rosenzweig, 48, of Brooklyn, said his daughter was “upset and shaken” following Wednesday’s harrowing incident. The civil engineering major was unavailable for comment Thursday while waiting to consult with an attorney.
“I’ve gone and donated money back to the school because I appreciated the education and I thought that my daughter was going to wind up with the same. Only instead, the school allowed my daughter to be at risk.
“I know she has a midterm she’s been trying to work on,” he said. “And her ability to process has been severely degraded.”
The father said his continued support of the school is now in question.
“My future donations depend on how the school responds and deals with this,” he said. “[My daughter] was looking forward to going for her master’s degree there and at this point, I’m not sure she’s going to do that.”
To make matters worse, Chief of Patrol John Chell completely contradicted everyone’s claims.
Chell probably did this to save his butt because students and parents want to know why it took officers so long to respond:
Some have called the NYPD to make arrests, but Chief of Patrol John Chell told reporters, “There was no direct threats.”
Plainclothes officers were with the protesters at the library, Chell said.
“Students were not barricaded,” Chell said. “The doors were open but closed. A school administrator thought it was prudent to close the doors and place private security as the protesters were coming down the stairs . . .“For about roughly 10 minutes . . . [protestors] were banging on the doors of the library and banging on some transparent windows that you could see into the library,” Chell added.
Cooper Union President Laura Sparks is no better. She tried to downplay it as a “peaceful protest,” and nothing happened:
Messages seeking comment from Cooper Union officials were not returned Thursday. University president Laura Sparks addressed the “peaceful protest” in a message, saying demonstrators moved inside the building at about 3:45 p.m Wednesday.
“To maintain a safe space, the library was closed for approximately 20 minutes while some student protestors moved through the building, some chanting protest slogans and banging on the library doors and windows,” Sparks said.
Gee, could it be because one mother begged the school for weeks to protect the Jewish students? The school did nothing: “But nothing happened. They still permitted the Hamas narrative to be expressed. They permitted the Jewish kids to be put in danger.”
The parents already hired a lawyer, Gerard Filitti: “Students felt afraid for their safety. They feared for their lives.”
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Guess nothing bad could happen in 20 minutes. What a pathetic downplay.
“The school did nothing”
Typical useless administrators. It will be necessary to build a fire under their ass.
The chief of patrol and an unnamed administrator sloughed off responsibility for student welfare onto an unlucky “security guard,” while plainclothes police did something, and the chief was somewhere other than the place he should have been.
The parallels with Germany of the 1930s are haunting.
Yes it is. People say they didn’t know, they didn’t see, they didn’t hear. People are liars. In a free society when something bad happens to ‘just the Jews’….rest assured they are only the first in line.
So glad to hear the Jewish students are already talking to a lawyer. If they can afford Cooper Union tuition, they can afford a lengthy court case. Which they are very likely to win . Good for them.
It was not a “peaceful protest” it was an act of intimidation. They could have held it faraway from the building or better yet off campus.
NAZI sympathizers run that school
“Islamonazi,” more aptly put.
NYPD fail: Chief presser –
https://tinyurl.com/p6kn7m26
@SamAntar
Hey NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell: I watched the footage and it contradicts what you are saying. Even your own narrative of what happened contradicts your conclusion that the no Jewish students were “barricaded” and “there was no danger to any students.”
✅ If there was no “direct threats” to any Jewish students, why did Cooper-Union security think it was “prudent” to lock the doors to protect the Jewish students inside the library?
✅ When the protestors were banging on the doors and yelling at Jewish students, do you think they wanted to return overdue books to the library or maybe they wanted to hand out lollipops?
✅ Are you so dumb to believe that the protestors accidentally did not swipe themselves into the building for the purpose of harming Jewish students?
✅ If there was “no direct threat” to the students, why did school security offer them an “”Uber ride” home?
✅ The same Jewish students you were talking about were interviewed and gave a completely different account of what you said happened. Their account was consistent with the video and not full of inconsistencies like what you said at the press conference.
✅ I dare you to stand in the same room with those Jewish students and look them in the eye with your lies, coverup, and deceptions.
I am a big supporter of the NYPD, but today’s NYPD brass is a product of NYC Mayor Eric Adams “cover your ass cronyism” even if it means whitewashing the truth. You are not the NYPD I once respected.
Sidebar: twitter. This is in Stokes…
https://tinyurl.com/38xs72aa
I guess the engineering students haven’t learned that engineers are subtle and make long, quiet plans for revenge.
mostly peaceful””
2A
Marxists and musselmans already inside the gates of vienna
While I don’t disregard the stupidity of American college students in the several dozen videos I have watched the last few weeks…many of the pro-Hamas demonstrators/rioters appear to be ones we have imported and graciously allowed to come to our country to study or live. Right now they feel very comfortable calling for the elimination action of the Jewish state but be assured they feel exactly the same way about America and Americans and want us dead and gone too..
These folk are funded, just like BLM, probably from the same GS coffees.
The more you engage them, the more they get closer to to their goal.
Yes. Qatar, Iran, Tides Foundation and many more.
Thanks. I assumed it was mainly George.
So in America 2023 the Jews must hide? Again? I know this site doesn’t need reminding but the campus is the third front in the building global war between civilization and anti civilization.
Kid should have left the campus under COVID.
No, Jews don’t need to hide, we need to stand up and arm up and not be intimidated or afraid. I know it’s an age thing with the college kids, but still, they need to take back their space and tell the asshole anti Israel protesters where to go.
Well said.
The perpetrators were all part of a Hamas sleeper cell, that have poisoned our universities with their anti Semitism
I am sure I am in the minority here, but I find it difficult to sympathize with these Jewish students when once again a majority of liberal American Jews will probably still support politicians, organizations and institutions that want them exterminated. I’m cynical but where is the outrage amongst all Jews over this? Why is it on us who are gentiles-Christians-to speak up when overall a scattering of liberal Jews have finally woken up?
I don’t disagree. American Jews overwhelmingly vote for leftist pols and policies, and this flourishing of Jew-hate is a direct result of those policies.
How Jews have failed to note that the Left and its client victim groups are deeply anti-Semitic is beyond me. Apparently, its part of being a stiff-necked people., because common sense and an understanding of history would certainly lead American secular Jews to act and vote differently
“Stiff-necked people?” What the hell does that even mean? That’s just a stupid characterization.
I forget where I read of its origin, but ‘stiff neck’ refers to the stubbornness of God’s People to his Commandments. Therefore Jews keep reaping the punishment of God.
I had read years ago it indicated one who refused or was unable to look around and see what was actually right there. Which would certainly describe Jewish people and the leftists they have thrown in with
It’s in the Bible, several times. Exodus 32:9, 34:9, 33:3, 33:5.
The Jews are a stiff-necked people. It can be a bad thing when we’re stiff-necked in defying God. But it can also be a good thing, when we’re stiff-necked in defying those who demand we abandon Him.
You said it quite well. Not only do we witness “stiff necked” people but also many have a hardness of heart.. Saying that, a lot of what we are witnessing is a result of liberal policies and much of it by liberal Jews. Now that the enemy is exposed to liberal Jews, the question is do they change there outlook or still follow those who will want them dead?
I can share your frustration with the voting habits of most American Jews, but, I find victim-blaming inherently distasteful and unfair, at the end of the day.
Firstly, let’s not generalize — there are many Jews who are politically conservative. A minority of their group, yes, but, they exist.
Secondly, if we’re getting into the blame game, Christian voters deserve their share of blame, because, no Dhimmi-crat President gets elected without support from Christian Dhimmi-crats. This is the reality, given that Jewish Dhimmi-crats predominantly live in “blue” states such as NY or CA that would never vote for a GOP presidential candidate.
Obama or Biden don’t get elected without support from Christian Dhimmi-crats.
The issue here is that Liberal Jewish westerners have been very much guilty of being in bed with those who want to exterminate them. The last time I checked it is not Christians running around wanting to exterminate Jews but also Christians.
Yes, not only is it a valid take on stiff necked Jews but Jews who have a hardness of heart. Get upset all you want and call me names, the fact remains is that American liberal Jews for many Americans have not and are not a sympathetic minority.
And they don’t just vote with the liberals who actually want them gone they actively form organizations and financially support the left and their goals… in a BIG way.
Maybe you just don’t want to see it (the outrage) and that allows you to spout your anti semitism masked as faux concern for people’s voting habits.
I saw a Hamas cleric, if that is the correct term, declare on video that they would first kill the Saturday People and then the Sunday People. Should be plain enough that none of this ends in Gaza.
The name calling already. Yep, I as a worshiper of a Jew named Jesus or Yeshua makes me antisemitic. I am guilty. Guilty of speaking the truth which you don’t like. Again, when do American liberal Jews finally realize that they must stop supporting politicians, political parties, organizations and institutions that want them exterminated? Until that is answered nothing else matters.
Worshiping a Jew doesn’t preclude antisemtism. Unfortunately Christianity has a long and bloodstained history of antisemitism, despite the apparent paradox.
As for what about your comment smacks of antisemitism, I think it’s your statement that you “find it difficult to sympathize with these students” because of how “a majority of liberal American Jews” vote.
Hmmm not seeing the anti semitism you are “seeing”. More like a person puzzled and worried
About a people helping those who openly want them gone…frankly they are being stupid like the LBG+++ groups supporting Hamas who would kill them first. It’s bizarre
I’m sick to death of these punk ass kids getting away with terrorizing Jews and no one doing anything about it. These terrorists are far worse than the supposed “insurrectionists” at the US Capitol, and they get away scot free. We need security to bash some of their heads in when they invade these places. Meet force with force. If they attack a person, police need to put some bullets in some Hamas behinds. That is the only way this stops. Our country is looking more and more like Berlin in 1935. This violence against Jews must be stopped. Mop head KJP turns anti-Semitism into a claim that Muslims are being threatened. They aren’t, but they, and anyone supporting these terrorists, damn well need to be threatened. You don’t assimilate into an American lifestyle within 10 years, you need to be shipped back to your homeland. Ilhan Omar needs to be the first one gone.
There are anti-Moslem hate crimes. Not nearly as many as the official narrative would have it, but they do happen. Just last week there was that nutcase in Michigan who stabbed his tenant and her little child. So it’s wrong to deny that there is such a phenomenon. But it’s minuscule, it’s the tiniest proportion of the hate crime problem, and yet it is built up as if it were the typical case. Much like the way AR-15s are built up as the major weapon of murder, when in fact the proportion of murders done with any kind of rifle is minuscule. Or the way white supremacists and neo-nazis are built up as the face of antisemitism, when in fact they are a minuscule and almost irrelevant segment of it.