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‘Pig Male Jew’: Ex-Cornell Student Who Threatened to Kill and Rape Jews Heading to Federal Prison
Patrick Dai, a former Cornell University student who threatened to murder and sexually assault Jews on the school’s campus. He was sentenced on Aug. 12, 2024 to 21 months in federal prison. Photo: Broome County Sheriff’s Office.
Former Cornell University student Patrick Dai, who threatened to perpetrate heinous crimes against members of the school’s Jewish community after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison on Monday, the US Department of Justice announced.
Last October, Dai raised the possibility of antisemitic violence at Cornell when he posted several statements calling for murdering Jews and raping Jewish women on a popular social media forum. In addition to threatening the lives of Cornell’s 3,500 Jewish students, who are 22 percent of the school’s student population, the posts threatened an attack on a campus kosher dining hall — named 104West — affiliated with the Steven K. And Winifred A. Grinspoon Hillel Center.
“Gonna shoot up 104 west… Allahu akbar! from the river to the sea, palestine will be free! glory to hamas! liberation by any means necessary!” one of his posts said. Another read, “If I see a pig male jew i will stab you and slit your throat. if i see another pig female jew i will drag you away and rape you and throw you off a cliff. if i see another pig baby jew i will behead you in front of your parents [sic].”
The Justice Department said Dai also vowed to “bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig Jews.”
The actions, for which Dai was promptly expelled from campus, were investigated by a terrorism task force and charged as federal hate crimes involving “threats to kill using interstate communications.” Declining to contest the government’s case at trial, he pled guilty. In addition to serving nearly two years in federal prison, he will, upon completing his sentence, be subject to three years of supervised release and levied a $100 fine.
“The defendant’s threats terrorized the Cornell campus community for days and shattered the community’s sense of safety,” Carla Freedman, US attorney for the Northern District of New York, said in a statement on Monday. “My office will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute threats and acts of violence motivated by antisemitism and hatred of any kind.”
Students have the right “to pursue their education without fear of violence based on who they are, how they look, where they are from or how they worship,” added Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s civil rights division. “Antisemitic threats of violence, like the defendant’s vicious and graphic threats here, violate that right. Today’s sentencing reaffirms that we will hold accountable those who violently threaten and intimidate others based on their religious practice or background. The Justice Department will continue to protect all Americans against bias motivated crimes wherever they occur, including college campuses.”
Dai’s crimes occurred amid a wave of antisemitic hate incidents which struck college campuses during the 2023-2024 academic year after the events of Oct. 7.
Cornell also saw extreme rhetoric uttered by faculty members when history professor Russell Rickford called the Hamas terror group’s invasion of Israel “exhilarating” and “energizing” at a pro-Palestinian rally. Afterward, he was granted leave of absence for the remainder of the semester and has since returned to campus.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Pig Male Jew’: Ex-Cornell Student Who Threatened to Kill and Rape Jews Heading to Federal Prison first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Thousands Attend Funeral in Israel of US-Born Lone Soldier: ‘We May Not Know Him, but He’s Family’
Jordan Cooper. Photo: Screenshot
Several thousand people on Tuesday evening attended the funeral of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fighter Jordan Cooper, a reservist and lone soldier originally from the US, who passed away after a rare allergy attack.
Cooper’s family called on the public to attend his funeral, explaining that several family members could not make it to Israel in time because many flights from the US were canceled amid rising tensions with Iran.
Crowds filled every inch of Ganei Esther Cemetery in Rishon Lezion. The funeral was held at 10 pm on Tuesday evening, just two hours after the Tisha B’av fast, which marks the saddest day in the Jewish calendar.
Mourners attend Jordan Cooper’s funeral. Photo: Taken by author
Cooper’s mother, Marla, who was visiting her son from the US, had bought halva at a market, after being assured by the vendor that it was nut-free. Despite using an EpiPen after consuming the halva, Jordan experienced a severe allergic reaction. He collapsed in front of his family as the ambulance arrived and was pronounced dead shortly afterward.
“It’s just amazing to think that no one thought twice about coming so soon after a 25-hour fast,” mourner Reut Levy, from Modiin, told The Algemeiner.
Asked if she knew the deceased personally, Levy responded, “No. But did anyone here? We saw a WhatsApp message to come so we came. This is the essence of am yisrael,” she said, referring to the Hebrew term for the people of Israel.
Moshe Gal said he had driven a couple of hours from Haifa to attend Cooper’s funeral. “We came to show we care. We may not know him, but he’s family nonetheless,” Gal said. “Who is like you, Nation of Israel?”
Lia Kiral, who lives opposite the cemetery with her mother and brother, said they always made an effort to attend funerals there. “We came to pay our last respects to this soldier, who came here to serve,” said Kiral, who had an Israeli flag draped around her soldiers.
Lia Kiral at Jordan Cooper’s funeral. Photo: Taken by author
Cooper’s father, Russ, choked up as he eulogized his son, visibly moved by the thousands of people who responded to the last-minute call to attend. “This is the reason he came to this country. Because of all of you,” he said.
Cooper had immigrated to Israel in 2018 through the Garin Tzabar program for lone soldiers with no immediate family in the Jewish state and served in the Nahal infantry brigade. After completing his military service, he returned to his hometown in Pennsylvania but came back to Israel following the outbreak of war on Oct. 7 to fight in his reserve unit on the northern border. He fought for 200 consecutive days before his release on July 18. During that time, Cooper had made the decision to stay in Israel, marry his girlfriend Valery, and serve as a career officer in the Border Police.
Last week, Cooper met with his reserve unit at the hospital to visit their commander, who had lost his leg during an operation in Gaza. Cooper was determined to help the commander obtain a robotic leg from the United States, his close friend Raphael Portgang was cited by the Ynet news site as saying.
Another friend, Chaimon Blumfield, told mourners on Tuesday night that Cooper fought hard to rejoin his army unit, which told him that it was at 120 percent capacity. He played a WhatsApp voice message to the crowd. “Try to help me fight. I want to serve in this war; I want to go into Gaza,” Cooper said in the message.
Ethan Cooper eulogized his brother, saying he would do everything to preserve his legacy. “I’ll find him in every place in my life, and I’ll be strong for him forever.”
The post Thousands Attend Funeral in Israel of US-Born Lone Soldier: ‘We May Not Know Him, but He’s Family’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jewish National Fund and Ne’eman Foundation have lost their Canadian charitable tax status
Two Jewish Canadian charities have had their charitable status formally revoked by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and can no longer issue receipts for tax purposes. CRA’s published notice in the government-issued Canada Gazette on Aug. 10 confirmed the revocations of the charitable registrations for the Jewish National Fund of Canada (JNF) and Ne’eman Foundation of […]
The post Jewish National Fund and Ne’eman Foundation have lost their Canadian charitable tax status appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Tim Walz Praised, Met With Muslim Cleric Who Promoted ‘Pro-Hitler’ Film, Defended Hamas’ Oct. 7 Massacre
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz hold a campaign event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, US, Aug. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee for US vice president, has praised and hosted several times a controversial Muslim cleric who promoted a pro-Adolf Hitler film and later expressed support for Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, according to new reports.
Walz hosted Asad Zaman, the imam of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, on at least five occasions as governor of Minnesota, the Washington Examiner reported. Zaman has a lengthy history of issuing public support for violence against Jews and Israel, leading to questions about the extent of Walz’s relationship with him.
The Minnesota governor invited Zaman, alongside other leaders in the Muslim community, to attend a May 2023 meeting about mosque security, according to the Examiner. In May 2020, Zaman spoke at an event to call for non-violent protests in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. One year earlier, the Muslim cleric attended a Ramadan event hosted by Walz’s office.
The revelations of Walz’s ties to Zaman come as the campaign of US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has insisted that her running mate has no “personal relationship” with the imam. However, according to footage unearthed by the Examiner, Walz called Zaman a “master teacher” at an event hosted by Minnesota’s Muslim American Society on Feb. 16, 2018, at the South Metro Islamic Center in Rosemount, Minnesota.
“I would like to first of all say thank you to the imam,” Walz said at the 2018 event. “I am a teacher, so when I see a master teacher, I know it. Over the time we’ve spent together, one of the things I’ve had the privilege of is seeing the things in life through the eye of a master teacher, to try and get the understanding.”
In 2015, Zaman encouraged his social media followers to watch an infamously pro-Hitler film titled “The Greatest Story Never Told.” The 2013 film is popular with neo-Nazis and considered to be revisionist history which depicts Hitler as a hero.
Years later, Zaman signaled support for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ murder of 1,200 people and kidnapping of some 250 hostages during its rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7 of last year. The onslaught was the biggest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
On the day of the surprise invasion, Zaman posted on Facebook that he “stands in solidarity with Palestinians against Israeli attacks.” That same day, he shared a social media post that stated, “Palestine has every right to have its freedom from the Zionists who [invaded] its land from many countries mostly Eastern Europe.”
Zaman has also shared links to Hamas press releases “mourning” the death of terrorists.
On Oct. 8, 2023, the cleric lambasted US Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) on X/Twitter for condemning the Hamas atrocities, asking the lawmaker if she will “also condemn Israel’s attacks on Palestinian civilians and children?”
“Do you also stand with the Palestinian people? Do you also reaffirm the right of Palestinians to defend themselves?” Zaman asked Porter.
Two days later, Zaman targeted Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin on X/Twitter, writing that Martin’s group “cannot be joined at the hip to apartheid Israel and still hope to court the Muslim vote” after the political leader said he was “beyond heartbroken” to learn Israelis he knew were “brutally killed or kidnapped” on Oct. 7.
Zaman also criticized Martin for expressing sympathy toward civilians killed in the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza. The Muslim cleric chastised Martin for not condemning the Jewish state.
“So Ken. You can easily condemn Hamas for killing civilians, but you can’t muster the courage to condemn Israel for killing civilians? Shame on you,” Zaman posted on X/Twitter.
Independent studies and Western intelligence agencies have found that the explosion at Al Ahli hospital was caused by a misfired rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in Gaza, not Israel.
Zaman previously attempted to equate the Hamas terrorist group to former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, questioning why Israeli civilians are not “punished” for installing a so-called “genocidal” leader.
“If Palestinians are punished for electing Hamas, why is Israel not punished for electing this genocidal maniac as its leader?” Zaman posted to X/Twitter in May 2021.
An investigation by US federal prosecutors described the Muslim American Society of Minnesota as “the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.” The Muslim Brotherhood is internationally recognized as a terrorist organization.
The post Tim Walz Praised, Met With Muslim Cleric Who Promoted ‘Pro-Hitler’ Film, Defended Hamas’ Oct. 7 Massacre first appeared on Algemeiner.com.