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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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A new style of magazine is coming from The CJN in 2025
When The Canadian Jewish News launched in 1960, it was as a weekly print newspaper. (Sample front-page headline: “Cannot Locate the Organizer of Toronto’s Mysterious ‘Exclusive’ Jewish Golf Club.”) Over the decades, it covered countless community events and developments, shut down and was reborn, moved from weekly to daily, and expanded beyond the written word.
The CJN’s relaunch, in 2021, took place in an entirely different media landscape than in 1960. News was instantaneous and most of it was read on screens or listened to through headphones; The CJN made the most of the immediacy and connection this new world offered: a daily news website and a slate of podcasts ensured that the community was always up-to-date.
That didn’t mean that print had lost its purpose or value, and so editorial staff developed a quarterly magazine to ensure that readers who were looking for deep dives and visual storytelling, who wanted to sit down and take their time with reporting and analysis, would still have a venue for doing just that.
When The CJN approached me about reimagining that magazine, it was still in the throes of mid-pandemic strictures. Our first meetings were held on park benches, and they were to discuss a fascinating challenge: how to make a genuinely contemporary Jewish magazine, one that is steeped in love for our heritage and also clear-eyed about the changing world around us, one that understands tradition and also speaks to younger generations. For a magazine editor — and for someone who grew up with The CJN but hadn’t, in all honesty, looked at it much as an adult — it was a remarkable chance to think through important questions about the function of journalism and about modern life as a Jewish Canadian.
I am thrilled to announce that the next chapter in The CJN’s own story — the culmination of those first park bench conversations and dozens more we’ve had since — will be unveiled this spring. This reimagined magazine is born of two years of reflection and brainstorming, research and design, developed by CJN veterans and newcomers like myself. It is our best effort to create a genuinely honest, open forum for Jewish Canadians of all persuasions, identities, and experiences to come together to learn from and about each other.
We are calling the redesigned magazine Scribe Quarterly — a name that both hearkens to tradition and evokes the journalistic goals we will be pursuing. We’ll be covering everything from politics to religion, education to food culture. We’re envisioning it as a reader’s guide to the contemporary Jewish world, and it will be landing in your mailboxes this spring. You can get a copy delivered to you, for free, by clicking here.
Hamutal Dotan
Editor in Chief
Scribe Quarterly
The post A new style of magazine is coming from The CJN in 2025 appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Holocaust Memorial in Poland Dedicated to Warsaw Ghetto Vandalized With Red Spray Paint Condemning Gaza War
The Umschlagplatz monument in Warsaw, Poland. Photo: IMAGO/Schöning via Reuters Connect
A monument in Poland dedicated to the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto was vandalized with a message that compared the extermination of Polish Jews during the Holocaust to Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Vandals spray-painted “Warsaw 1943 = Gaza 2025” onto the Umschlagplatz monument in Warsaw, which commemorates the site where more than 300,000 Jews were deported from the Warsaw Ghetto to Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Polish media reported that a representative from the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews contacted Polish authorities about the vandalism on Friday and police said they were looking for the perpetrators.
Israel’s Ambassador to Poland Yacov Livne called the vandalism “shameful” in a post on X, and urged Polish authorities to find the vandals and hold them accountable for their actions. “Poland has a special responsibility to protect Jewish & Holocaust sites,” he wrote.
Shameful vandalism at Warsaw’s memorial for 300,000 (!) Jews deported to Treblinka. Poland has a special responsibility to protect Jewish & Holocaust sites; hold vandals accountable. pic.twitter.com/4No1PI7ZXd
— Amb. Yacov Livne
(@YacovLivne) January 7, 2025
Other Holocaust memorials in Poland have also been vandalized since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. In December, a 36-foot-tall memorial that honors the Jewish fighters who revolted against the Germans during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 was also desecrated with red spray paint. Livne as well as Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the vandalism on social media.
“The MFA [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] strongly condemns the act of vandalism aimed at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes — a symbol of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust and Jewish resistance against German Nazism,” the ministry wrote on X. “Such acts are an attack on history and the values that unite us as a society.”
The European Jewish Congress also condemned the desecration in a post on X. “The vandalism of the Warsaw Ghetto monument is a disgraceful act that disrespects Holocaust victims. We hope authorities will investigate thoroughly and bring those responsible to justice,” the social media post read. “Acts like this highlight the ongoing need for education and vigilance against hate.”
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Gal Gadot Was Not Allowed to Wear Hostage Pin to Golden Globes, Rep Says
Gal Gadot at the 82nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. Photo: Dan MacMedan-USA TODAY via Reuters Connect
Israeli actress Gal Gadot was forbidden from wearing to the 82nd Golden Globes on Sunday night a pin that would draw awareness to the 100 hostages who are still held captive by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip after more than 450 days, a representative for the “Wonder Woman” star told Israeli media this week.
Gadot, 39, presented at the award ceremony in Beverly Hills wearing a custom black silk Giorgio Armani Privé long sleeve gown that featured an asymmetrical cut out and an oversized pearl detail. She styled the gown with earrings from the 2024 Tiffany & Co. Blue Book Céleste Collection, a Tiffany & Co. Archives bracelet, a Jean Schlumberger by Tiffany Two Bees ring, and another yellow sapphire ring.
Many pro-Israel supporters on social media were quick to criticize her for not wearing to the Golden Globes a yellow ribbon pin, which symbolizes solidarity with the hostages abducted on Oct. 7, 2023, and calls for their return home. However, a representative for the actress explained that the mother of four was not allowed to wear such a pin.
“Gal could not wear the hostage pin because she is presenting an award and there are rules,” the representative said, as quoted by Ynet. “She was tormented and therefore published the [Instagram] post calling for the release of the hostages before the ceremony. She thought of a creative solution together with her managers — and wore a yellow ring. It was important to her to abide by the rules and also to remember the hostages.”
The representative referred to an Instagram post that Gadot published before the start of the Golden Globes about 20-year-old Israeli hostage Liri Albag, who was featured in a video that Hamas released on Saturday. Gadot wrote a message to her 108 million Instagram followers about Albag and the other 99 hostages still held captive by the terrorist organization. She shared pictures of the hostages, including a screenshot of Albag from the new Hamas video, and additionally posted an image that featured a yellow ribbon and the message “#BringThemHomeNow.”
“While I prepare for a festival and joyous evening, my heart is heavy, and my soul aches knowing the hostages are still there [in Gaza],” Gadot wrote. “Every day that passes without an agreement puts their lives in greater danger. I can’t stop thinking about the families, waiting for them, counting the hours, the minutes, clinging to hope. They must come home. We all deserve to see them return, alive. Bring them home now.”
Gadot has four daughters with her husband, Jaron Varsano. She recently shared on social media that when she was pregnant with her forth daughter Ori, who was born in 2024, she was diagnosed with a blood clot in the brain and had to to undergo emergency surgery to treat it.
The post Gal Gadot Was Not Allowed to Wear Hostage Pin to Golden Globes, Rep Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.