Illustrative: The University of Michigan on Oct. 7, 2024, marking the first anniversary of Hamas’s invasion of Israel. Photo: USA Today Network via Reuters Connect

Police in Ann Arbor, Michigan, are searching for a man who trespassed the grounds of the Jewish Resource Center, which serves University of Michigan students, and kicked its door while howling antisemitic statements.

“F—k Israel, f—k the Jewish people,” the man — whom multiple reports describe as white, “college-age,” and possibly named “Jake” or “Jay” — screamed before running away. He did not damage the property, and he may have been accompanied by as many as two other people, one of whom him shouted “no!” when he ran up to the building.

“My immediate reaction is a little bit not surprised, which is crazy” University of Michigan student Meyer Cusnir told a local CBS affiliate when asked about the incident. “We should be surprised at this. Antisemitism should not be normalized. When you hear words like ‘eff’ Israel and then ‘eff’ Jews, my reaction just validates a lot of feelings on campus that anti-Israel is just leading to antisemitism.”

Ann Arbor police offered an unspecified cash reward to anyone who comes forward with information which leads to the suspect’s capture.

The University of Michigan has seen a lion’s share of antisemitic incidents in recent years.

In 2022, during observance of the Jewish New Year, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), an anti-Israel group, erected an “apartheid wall” on campus and led an anti-Israel protest in front of it. Some University of Michigan students approached the protesters and urged them to become fully apprised of the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, The Michigan Daily reported at the time. Standing atop a nearby structure, they made a “thumbs-down” gesture when they perceived the protesters’ remarks as offensive or lacking nuance.

SAFE was one of many anti-Zionist student groups which commandeered school property during the conclusion of the 2023-2024 academic school year and refused to surrender it unless the university agreed to boycott and divest from Israel. Nearly a month passed before the university cleared the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” erected on the occupied school grounds, during which both students and non-students destroyed school property, disrupted university business, and amassed outside the homes of school officials.

In 2024, the “Shut It Down” (SID) party, which captured control of the student government, led a failed and unpopular campaign of intimidation to freeze funding for student clubs until school officials enacted a boycott of Israel — resulting in the removal of its leader, Alifa Chowdhury, from office. Chowdhury had faced three charges in total: incitement to violence, defamation, and dereliction of duty, the last of which she was found guilty of on Dec. 23, according to a statement issued by the Central Student Judiciary (CSJ). Her vice president, Elias Atkinson, was convicted of the same offense.

Amid SID’s campaign, a Jewish student was assault in a “Nazi like” attack allegedly carried out by six people near campus. According to the Ann Arbor Police Department, the beating occurred when the group accosted the 19-year-old victim, whose name has not been released, and demanded to know whether he was Jewish. The young man said that he was, after which the suspects slammed him on the concrete, according to police. They then kicked and spit on him before leaving.

The University of Michigan is not the only campus which saw an antisemitic incident over the past week.

At Ohio State University, an unknown person or group tacked neo-Nazi posters across the campus which warned, “We are everywhere.” The outrage was first reported by StopAntisemitism, a Jewish civil rights advocacy group which tracks antisemitism across the US.

Incidents of campus antisemitism continue to rise around the world, as revealed in a new monthly report published by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) civil rights organization.

Published by the group’s Antisemitism Research Center (ARC), the report said CAM recorded 53 antisemitic incidents on college campuses in the month of September, a 178 percent increase over the previous month, when 19 were recorded despite students not being present on campus during the summer holiday.

“This surge reflects the resumption of the academic year and the persistent problem of antisemitism at colleges and university,” the report said. “In France, students at Sorbonne University in Paris discussed a targeted shooting attack against Jewish students at the school. In Argentina, students at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba seized control of parts of the campus, protesting Israel’s ‘genocide’ of the Palestinians.”

The report added that the US saw 38 campus antisemitism incidents in September, several of which The Algemeiner reported.

In upstate New York, for example, law enforcement agencies filed hate crime charges against two Syracuse University students who they say forcefully gained entry into a Jewish fraternity’s off-campus house during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and heaved a bag of pork at a wall, causing its contents to splatter across the floor.

In Hanover, New Hampshire, an unknown person or group graffitied a swastika, the symbol of the Nazi Party, outside the dormitory of a Jewish student at Dartmouth College.

In Manhattan, New York, an unknown person graffitied antisemitic messages inside the Weinstein residence hall at New York University, prompting school president Linda Mills to issue a statement condemning antisemitism and imploring students to uphold the institution’s values.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

Illustrative” A pro-Hamas demonstrator uses a bullhorn on March 11, 2025. Photo: Daniel Cole via Reuters Connect

Anti-Israel extremists enrolled in higher education institutions in the New England region “convicted” a consortium of college officials of aiding the Israeli war effort in Gaza in a mock trial convened by a group which calls itself the Western Massachusetts People’s Tribunal (WMPL), an episode which showcased the far left’s use of theater as a mode of political agitation.

The WMPL is reportedly a composite of anti-Zionist groups drawn from the University of Massachusetts (UMass), Smith College, and Hampshire College. They include Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and the Radical STEM Bloc. The groups held the ritualistic condemnation of their colleges outside the UMass Student Union building on Tuesday.

As reported by the Massachusetts Daily Collegian, “The audience served as the jury and found the defense guilty in all six cases. Unlike a traditional court, verdicts were based on a majority vote. All were unanimous except for one ‘not guilty’ vote in the Trustees of Smith College case.”

A protest followed the trial, with the students stalking the campus while chanting “no justice, no peace” and “you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide.” Later, they recited a summary of the charges of which the schools were convicted near the chancellor’s office, to which they marched to deliver the verdict to a group of officials who left their offices to meet them.

The anti-Zionist student movement kept a busy schedule throughout the month of October.

At Pomona College in California, an unknown group issued a disturbing open letter which claimed credit for storming a Jewish event held to commemorate the lives of the children, women, and men murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, or subsequently in captivity in Gaza — a harrowing incident in which security failed to deter the intruders and protect those gathered inside the venue.

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, footage of the incident from earlier this month showed the group, whose members concealed their faces with keffiyeh scarves, attempting to raid the room while screaming expletives and pro-Hamas slogans. They ultimately failed due to the prompt response of the Claremont Colleges Jewish chaplain and other attendees who formed a barrier in front of the door to repel them, a defense they mounted on their own as campus security personnel did nothing to stop the disturbance.

“Satan dared not look us in the eyes,” said the note, which the group released on social media, while attacking event guests and Oct. 7 survivor Yoni Viloga. “Immediately, zionists [sic] swarmed us, put their hands on us, shoved us, while Viloga retreated like he did on October 7th, 2023.”

Appearing to threaten murder, the group added, “We let that coward know he and his fascists settler ideology are not welcome here nor anywhere. zionism is a death cult that must be dealt with accordingly [sic].”

Earlier this month, National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), a primary organ of the student anti-Zionist movement in the US, appeared to call for executing Muslim “collaborators” working with Israel in retaliation for the death of Palestinian influencer Saleh Al-Jafarawi during a conflict between the Hamas terrorist group and a rival clan, Doghmush, in Gaza City.

“Saleh’s martyrdom is a testament to the fact that the fight against Zionism in all its manifestations — from the [Israel Defense Forces] to its collaborators — must continue,” the group said in a statement posted on social media. “In the face of hundreds of thousands of martyred Palestinians these past two years alone, collaborators and informants maintain their spineless disposition as objects of Zionist influence against their own people.”

The statement went on to volley a series of unfounded charges alleging that anti-Hamas forces are “exploiting Gaza’s youth for money” and pilfering “desperately needed aid to the killing of their own people in service of Zionism.” NSJP concluded, “Death to the occupation. Death to Zionism. Death to all collaborators.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

Smithfield High School football coach Kyle Purvis. There have been calls to fire Purvis in light of the antisemitic hazing incident that involved football players from the high school. Photo: USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Rhode Island state elected officials, religious leaders, and Jewish groups have condemned an antisemitic hazing incident that took place at a local high school as well as what they described as the school’s lack of leadership in its handling of the situation.

The Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center hosted a press conference on Thursday after criticizing the decision by Smithfield High School administrators to reinstate five senior football players who had been punished for abusing a Jewish freshman student.

The group of football players allegedly locked a Jewish student, a fellow football player, in a bathroom and sprayed Lysol at him through a grate in the door while yelling antisemitic slurs. The family of the victim filed a police report over the incident with the Smithfield Police Department.

On Oct. 11, Smithfield Schools Superintendent Dawn Bartz said that “several” student athletes on the football team had been barred from participating for the rest of the season after an investigation into an incident involving “hazing and antisemitic remarks” confirmed “inappropriate conduct.”

“The school district maintains a zero-tolerance policy for hazing, bullying, and harassment of any form,” Bartz added.

However, on Oct. 22, the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center discovered that the football players were back on the team and at practice. The high school gave no public explanation for why the football players were reinstated before the end of the season.

“For the last week, we’ve been left with only questions and no answers,” Adam Greenman, president of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, said at Thursday’s press conference. “That’s not how these situations should be handled. Our Jewish community here in Rhode Island has been left on edge and feeling isolated, trying to understand how and why a school district would confirm that this incident occurred, put in place approbate discipline, and then quietly backtrack on everything.”

State Rep. Mia Ackerman, a Rhode Island resident and the senior Jewish member in the General Assembly, also spoke at Thursday’s event and was accompanied by other state representatives and senators. She called the antisemitic hazing incident “deeply disturbing” and “a total shanda,” which is a Yiddish word that means shame, disgrace, and embarrassment.

“The actions of the students were shameful and disgraceful, and the reaction of a few of the adult leaders in the Smithfield school system was an embarrassment,” she added. “To me it wasn’t hazing – it was hatred. Their ugly racial and religious slurs will haunt this student for many years to come … This is not a harmless prank. This is deeply upsetting to me and all members of the Rhode Island Jewish community. Making it worse is the subsequent actions – or should I say, non-actions — of the school administration. They clearly did not understand the severity of this offense. School officials who are supposed to be leaders and role models instead sent a clear message to the students involved that this horrible attack was acceptable.”

Ackerman called on the Smithfield High School administration to “follow through with the commitments they initially made both to discipline the students involved” and to partner with the Jewish Alliance to provide antisemitic training and education to these students. Ackerman added that she plans to introduce legislation into the state House to help prevent similar antisemitic incidents from happening again in Rhode Island schools.

The press conference took place the same day that the office of Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha received a complaint from a parent of the victim, who accused the Smithfield school district of not responding appropriately to the antisemitic hazing incident, according to the Boston Globe. The parent alleged that several students “assaulted and harassed the student based on his Jewish ancestry/ethnicity and religion in the locker room before football team practice” on Sept. 30, according to a letter Neronha’s office wrote to school district attorney Sean Clough on Thursday. The parent claimed the district failed to “take steps reasonably calculated to eliminate any hostile environment and its effects and prevent harassment from recurring.” The attorney general’s office is requesting that the school district provide information about the incident no later than Nov. 13.

Others who condemned the incident at Thursday’s press conference, as well as the school’s handling of the situation, included US Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI) and Jeremy Langill, executive minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches. “Real harm was caused but true accountability … has not happened,” said Langill, who was accompanied on stage by clergy and board members of the council. There was a statement read on behalf of Bishop Bruce Lewandowski, of the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island, who further denounced the incident.

“What would have happened if this had been a robbery?” asked Joe Reddish, chairman of the Rhode Island Commission on Prejudice and Bias. “Would we have just suspended them and then made it go away? Well, this was a robbery in a sense because it robbed somebody of the value of who they are and what they stand for. We cannot allow robberies of our beliefs, what we look like and who we are.”

Smithfield Town Council President John Tassoni, whose daughter went to Smithfield High School, said he received thousands of emails from people all over the country expressing concerns about the incident. He began by apologizing to the Jewish community for the attack taking place in his town. “This is not Smithfield,” he insisted. “We have a few individuals who did the wrong thing at the wrong time to this young boy.” He noted that the Smithfield Town Council has no jurisdiction to take action against public school committees but if he could, he would fire Bartz, as well as the high school’s football coach Kyle Purvis and athletic director Glenn Castiglia, “because they all knew what happened and it was all shoved under the Oriental rug.”

“We need answers. We need accountability. Enough is enough,” he concluded.

Bartz said in a statement emailed to NBC 10 News on Thursday that the school district “has taken this matter seriously and acted in accordance with our policies.” The school committee is scheduled to meet on Monday at the high school and will discuss the issue.

The Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center denounced the handling of the incident in a joint statement last week. Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee and Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green issued a joint statement earlier this week also condemning the incident. Responding to the criticism, Bartz said that “the disciplinary process has concluded, and we will not be discussing details involving students.”

Smithfield’s Town Manager Robert Seltzer noted in a statement that although the incident occurred within the Smithfield public school system, which operates independently under the supervision of the superintendent and the school committee, “we want to make it clear that the town of Smithfield does not condone such behavior in any form.”

Greenman said 30 antisemitic incidents in Rhode Island have been reported to the Jewish Alliance so far this year.