Connect with us

RSS

Office for Civil Rights Investigating Antisemitism at Ohio State University

University Hall at Ohio State University. Photo: OZinOH/Flickr

Federal scrutiny of antisemitism on American college campuses continues with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announcing earlier this month that it is investigating Ohio State University for allegedly ignoring complaints of antisemitism in contravention of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

“Ohio State has never — and will never — tolerate discrimination or harassment of anyone based on their religious beliefs, nationality, or identity,” an OSU spokesperson told the school’s campus newspaper, The Lantern, in a statement addressing the investigation.

According to the paper, the school has been plagued with antisemitic incidents since Hamas’ massacre across Israel on Oct. 7, which triggered a global wave of antisemitism. Just over ten days after the terror onslaught, a male OSU student spit on someone buying a bracelet that said, “I stand with Israel.” The next month, two female students invaded the campus Hillel and screamed “f*** you” and “free Palestine” and two men assaulted students, suspecting that they were Jewish. One of the students, The Lantern added, was hospitalized. In Dec., fraternity members of Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), a predominantly Jewish Greek Life organization, reported that a small group of people screaming “Jewish bastards” pelted bottles at their house.

Earlier this week, OCR opened a formal investigation of Northwestern University to determine whether it ignored allegations of antisemitic discrimination and harassment after Hamas’ massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, because the students who lodged them are Jewish.

The investigation followed a complaint filed by Campus Reform editor-in-chief, Zachary Marschall, who cited, among other things, Northwestern’s alleged nonresponse to the projection of a Palestinian flag onto a school building, an academic program’s defending Hamas as a “political group,” and severe maltreatment of Jewish students, as cause to review the school’s compliance with Title VI, which forbids discrimination based on race and national origin.

Dozens of other universities, including Tulane University, University of Pennsylvania, George Mason University, Northwestern University, and American University for allegedly neglecting to deter, punish, or condemn disturbing acts of antisemitism.

US college campuses have experienced an alarming spike in antisemitic incidents — including demonstrations calling for Israel’s destruction and the intimidation and harassment of Jewish students— since Oct. 7, 2023. In a two month span, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recorded 470 antisemitic incidents on college campuses alone. During that same period, antisemitic incidents across the US skyrocketed by 323 percent compared to the prior year.

The campus climate has, in many instances, pushed Jewish identity underground. More than one in three Jewish college students reporting feeling the need to hide their Jewish identity on campus after Oct. 7, according to a new survey conducted by Hillel International. A striking 37 percent of Jewish students said they have needed to hide their Jewish identity and 35 percent of respondents said there have been acts of hate or violence against Jews on their campus. A majority of those surveyed said they were unsatisfied with their university’s response to those incidents.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Office for Civil Rights Investigating Antisemitism at Ohio State University first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

RSS

Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters

Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) filed a lawsuit challenging as unconstitutional the Trump administration’s actions to deport international students and scholars who protest or express support for Palestinian rights.

The lawsuit, filed on Saturday in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York, seeks a nationwide temporary restraining order to block enforcement of two executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump in the first month of his term.

The lawsuit comes after the detention of a Columbia University student, Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old permanent US resident of Palestinian descent, whose arrest sparked protests this month.

Justice Department lawyers have argued that the US government is seeking Khalil’s removal because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reasonable grounds to believe his activities or presence in the country could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” Rubio on Friday said the United States will likely revoke visas of more students in the coming days.

Trump vowed to deport activists who took part in protests on US college campuses against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza following the October 2023 attack by the Palestinian terrorists.

The ADC lawsuit was filed on behalf of two graduate students and a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who say their activism and support of the Palestinian people “has put them at serious risk of political persecution.”

“This lawsuit is a necessary step to preserve our most fundamental constitutional protections. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech and expression to all persons within the United States, without exception,” said Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the ADC.

Chris Godshall-Bennett, the group’s legal director, said the litigation seeks immediate and long-term relief “to protect international students from any unconstitutional overreach that stifles free expression and deters them from fully engaging in academic and public discourse.”

The lawsuit centers on three Cornell University plaintiffs: a British-Gambian national and PhD student with a student visa; a US citizen PhD student working on plant science; and a US citizen novelist, poet, and professor in the Department of Literatures in English.

The post Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

RSS

Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week

Israel’s Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar speaks at Reichman University in Herzliya on Sunday, September 11, 2022. Photo: Screenshot

i24 NewsPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security agency, that he will bring a vote before his government to dismiss him next week.

The post Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

RSS

Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes

Newly recruited fighters who joined a Houthi military force intended to be sent to fight in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, march during a parade in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 2, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

i24 NewsThe Houthis claimed on Sunday that they targeted the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and other vessels in the northern Red Sea with 18 ballistic and cruise missiles and a drone. Military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that the US-led attacks against the Houthis on Saturday comprised of more than 47 airstrikes on seven governorates, with the death toll expected to rise.

“The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and in the Arabian Sea in retaliation to the aggression against our country,” Saree said, vowing the Houthis “will continue to impose a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy and ban its ships in the declared zone of ​​operations until aid and basic needs are delivered to the Gaza Strip.”

The post Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

Copyright © 2017 - 2023 Jewish Post & News