Jewish students at Rutgers are accusing the Biden administration of cutting off what they see as a sweetheart deal with the university, which is releasing it for allowing a persistent culture of anti-Semitism.
The settlement, announced by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights on Jan. 2, requires Rutgers to take a series of measures to combat discrimination on campus after 400 reports of hateful incidents were filed on campus 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 encouraging violence against an Israeli attending the university, with information on how to find them. In another report, it was discovered that a Jewish student’s dormitory had been vandalized with a swastika drawn outside their dorm and their mezuzah damaged. Members of a Jewish brotherhood claimed they were threatened because of their faith in another report.
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A sign reading “Glory to our martyrs” sits on a tree on the Rutgers Newark campus. (Christopher L. D’Alessandro)
As part of the settlement, Rutgers has agreed to issue a statement to students and employees saying discrimination will not be tolerated on campus, and to review previous reports of discrimination to determine whether further action should be taken to comply Title IX. .
However, many Rutgers students believe the agreement falls far short of what is needed to protect them from the brutal 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 agreed upon by Rutgers are unlikely to stem the tide of anti-Semitism on campus, and may not even be enforced after current President Jonathan Holloway. steps down.
“Personally, I think the university will be left alone, it is a promise we had before.” said Vaynberg.
“Will the agreements between (Holloway) and his faculty and the Department of Education remain the same regardless of who takes his place?”
“Much of what Rutgers agreed to is ‘statements’ and ‘reviews,’ but they have declared and reviewed things left and right since October 7 and yet the number of anti-Semitic incidents at Rutgers continues to rise,” said Ben Stern, 20. a a sophomore at the school majoring in political science at Fox News Digital.
“The DOE spent a year reviewing over 400 reports of discrimination and on the way out signed another toothless agreement that literally does nothing to protect anyone. It’s official; this administration has utterly failed the American Jewish community,” National Jewish Advocacy said. Center Director Mark Goldfeder said.
“I believe this settlement falls miles short of what needs to be done to address the issues of anti-Semitism at Rutgers,” Stern lamented.
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Rutgers University students set up a Gaza solidarity camp at a New Jersey university on May 21, 2024 on the Rutgers-Newark campus in Newark, United States. (Photo by Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Some critics say the settlement was an attempt by the Biden administration to deter the new Trump administration from taking much harsher punitive action against the university.
“It is shameful that in the final days of the Biden-Harris administration, the Biden-Harris administration is leaving universities, including Rutgers, alone.” House Education Workforce Committee Chairman Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) said in a statement Thursday.
Trump promised at the Combatting Antisemitism conference in Washington DC in September that his administration would be stripped of accreditation and federal support if it did not stop teaching “anti-Semitic propaganda.”
“The Biden administration has proven once again that it doesn’t give a damn about anti-Semitism in America. It is no coincidence that they announced these long-awaited decisions just two weeks before leaving office,” said Andrew Getraer, former director of Rutgers Hillel.
“It’s a weak deal,” Rutgers junior Joe Gindi told Fox News Digital.
“I am incredibly disappointed by the Biden administration for cutting this deal with Rutgers. This deal is far from the end of hatred at our state university,” Gindi said.
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Rutgers students occupy tents and hold rallies outside Murray Hall as part of their protest in support of Palestinians affected by the war in Gaza. (Alexander Lewis/MyCentralJersey/USA TODAY NETWORK)
Jewish students are sounding the alarm about persistent anti-Semitism at the university in the year since Hamas launched genocidal attacks on October 7, in which the terror group killed more than 1,200 people and kidnapped hundreds more.
LGBTQ Orthodox Jewish student Rivka Schafer sued the school after their faces appeared on an anti-Israel flyer plastered to the right outside their student house.
“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 member of Rutgers University’s Center for Security, Race and Rights, routinely shared sickening videos of Hamas terrorists killing IDF soldiers on his Instagram, calling it “hunting season” in the captions. mentioned: reported the New York Post.
Rutgers, the Biden White House and the Department of Education did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
