The past few weeks have shown us that antisemitism is common on American college campuses. The incidents range from students holding signs saying “Keep the World Clean” with the Star of David to death threats sent to Cornell’s Kosher dining hall.
With the ubiquity of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) officers and “safe spaces,” it is anathema that little is done to keep Jewish students safe. An ongoing incident involving Yoel Ackerman, a first-year student at Rutgers Law School illustrates why this is so.
According to Yeshiva World News, a widely read newspaper in the Orthodox Jewish community, on October 12, five short days after Hamas invaded Israel and killed and captured over 1,400 Jews, a Palestinian student (whose name is not yet public) shared a social media video in the Rutgers Student Bar Association (SBA) group of which Ackerman is a part. The video “explained” that Hamas did not murder Jews, rape women, or behead babies and that the October 7 pogrom was “staged.”
In response, Ackerman asked why the video was shared, to which the Palestinian student replied, “I am just clearing up some information about Palestine.” Over the past few weeks, Ackerman has been a victim of backward policies and kangaroo courts.
A Rutgers employee soon called Ackerman to accuse him of violating “school conduct policy” and accused him of Defamation and Disorderly conduct.
Later, during a meeting with Rutgers “investigators,” Ackerman was told he would be provided a “campus advisor,” for the forthcoming meeting.
Soon after, Rutgers informed Ackerman that they would not permit him to work with the campus advisor as she is also an advisor to a Jewish student group. Allegedly, this would give Ackerman an unfair advantage over the Palestinian student who had lodged the complaint. In response, Ackerman requested to delay the meeting—which was denied.
During the meeting, Ackerman explained that given the planned “day of rage,” he shared the Palestinian student’s screenshot to inform his fellow students of what might be coming, only to have a Rutgers investigator tell him it was a “day of resistance.”
The story doesn’t end there; Ackerman received a letter from the SBA stating that he was up for impeachment: “Based on the alleged actions you took against several students, including ‘doxing,’ defamation, and harassment, you have violated the Anti-Discrimination Clause in Article VIII and Article II (a)(i)(c) of this Constitution.”
He was then subject to a three-hour public SBA meeting during which 15 Palestinian students each offered five minutes of testimony.
As of October 31, Rutgers University has not acted to protect Ackerman, an Orthodox Jewish first-year law student. However, they have held special classes about “Gaza.”
America’s universities are overflowing with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) administers to ensure all students feel “safe” and Title IX-backed kangaroo courts that will destroy a young man’s life if a woman (or man) lodge a complaint against him.
In the coming days, more facts will emerge about what has transpired between Rutgers, Ackerman, and the SBA.
But Ackerman’s story makes it clear: universities don’t actually care about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Feckless bureaucrats fear left-wing radicals, and Jews are collateral damage.