Latest news with #CampusSafety
Fox News
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
This isn't just about the Jews. It never was
In the aftermath of what's now being called the "12-Day War," involving Israel, the U.S. and Iran, antisemitic rhetoric and incidents have reached new and disturbing heights. This is beyond even the devastating rise we've seen since Oct. 7. The Anti-Defamation League's recent report should stop every decent human being in their tracks. For many of us in the Jewish community, it was not a surprise. Painful, yes. alarming, absolutely. But shocking? Tragically, no. We didn't need the data. We live it. For the Jew today, especially high school and college students, this isn't just a sociological trend. This is the air they breathe. Young Jews are coming of age in a world that bombards them with slogans not about political policy, but about their very identity. From graffiti and shattered windows in cities across the country to violent chants on campuses and real threats of harm, the current climate does not reflect honest debate about international politics. Instead, it reveals a barely hidden, and often blatant, hatred of Jews, normalized in places where people are supposed to feel safe. I wear a yarmulke. I wear tzitzit (traditional Jewish fringes). I walk in the world as a very visible member-of-the-tribe. Before a single slur is thrown my way, no one asks me my thoughts on the last Israeli election. No one stops to inquire about my stance on a two-state solution. Like so many others who wear their Judaism proudly and publicly, I am targeted not for anything I've done, thought or said, but simply for who I am. They see a kippah, a mezuzah, a Jewish name or symbol and they lash out. That hatred is not academic or theoretical. It's real, it's visceral, and it makes no distinction. I've experienced my fair share of aggressive and dangerous antisemitism, but what chills me most is not my own experience. It's fear in the eyes of the next generation. Students who feel they must hide their identities. High school students walking out of their Jewish Student Union (JSU) clubs wondering if they should remove their Star of David necklaces before their next class with a certain teacher. College kids who are afraid that simply being Jewish might make them social pariahs, or worse. They are expected, sometimes obligated, to celebrate everyone else's identity, but always hide their own. The double standard is glaring. Let me be crystal clear: thoughtful and critical discourse about Israeli policy is not antisemitic. In fact, it's necessary. Israel is a democratic country with its share of flaws and tough decisions to make. But when I hear people shouting, "Burn Tel Aviv to the ground" or "Globalize the Intifada," this is not policy critique. This is not intellectual opposition. This is a genocidal threat. We cannot let ourselves pretend otherwise. Antisemitism is no longer hiding in the shadows, rather showing up in polite society. The ADL report is chilling: mainstream voices are spreading conspiracy theories that Jews control policy, while slogans calling for Israel's destruction and "Death to America" flood social media. What's worse, White supremacists, radical Islamists, far-left activists and college professors now unite in their hatred of Jews. We've heard this before. We know where it leads. If you're not Jewish, reach out to your Jewish friends. Learn. Speak up. Challenge hate. When only one people is asked to justify their existence, something is deeply broken. Call it out. Above all, understand this: antisemitism is not a Jewish problem. It is a human problem. Wherever Jew-hatred was allowed to grow, so too grows the targeting of all other minorities. Societies that target Jews first never stop there. We Jews will not disappear nor cower. We will not apologize for existing. But we ask, simply, for your hand to stand together. Will you stand with us? Not just because we are your neighbors, colleagues, classmates and friends. But because all our children deserve a world where hatred is called out, justice is pursued and no one has to hide who they are. I still hold onto that dream. A world with more light, more courage and more compassion is possible. Let's build it together.
CTV News
09-05-2025
- CTV News
Knife used to allegedly threaten University of Guelph employee
A Guelph man was arrested after police said he allegedly pulled a knife on a University of Guelph employee Thursday afternoon. Guelph Police said they were called to an unspecified spot on the university's campus for reports of a suspicious man at around 1:30 p.m. An employee told police she asked a man about the ownership of a bicycle, before he allegedly took out a knife and waved it at her while threatening her. Police said Campus Safety Office members went to the scene and detained the man before police arrived. Staff told police they took a yellow box-cutter and an ice maker away from the man that they believe were stolen recently from a business nearby. Police said after they arrived they arrested the man and took him to a police station, where they said he was not cooperative and was threatening to hurt an officer. A 41-year-old man from Guelph was charged with assault with a weapon, possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose, two counts of uttering threats, theft under $5,000, possessing stolen property and two counts of breaching a probation order.
CBS News
08-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Columbia University limits campus access following protests, dozens in custody
Dozens of people taken into custody at Columbia protest Dozens of people taken into custody at Columbia protest Dozens of people taken into custody at Columbia protest Dozens of people were taken into custody during protests at Columbia University on Wednesday, and the school is once again limiting access to its campus. Only those with a university ID or approved faculty guests will be allowed past checkpoints Thursday, according to a message on the school's website. All other visitors, including alumni, will not. Columbia's safety protocols outline three levels of campus access: "O" for open, "I" for ID only and "R" for restricted. The campus is currently at the second level, "I." Butler Library, where the protest took place, reopened Thursday, as students are studying for their final exams, Columbia's Acting President Claire Shipman wrote in an update. Rubio says feds are reviewing Columbia protesters' visas U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the protest, saying the federal government will be reviewing the visa status of the trespassers and vandals who took over the school's campus library in Morningside Heights. Rubio has called for Columbia graduate student and pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil to be deported, in part, for his role in last year's campus protests. Khalil, who is a legal permanent resident and has not been charged with a crime, was taken into custody in March and remains in an ICE detention center in Louisiana, along with Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk. Another Columbia activist, Mohsen Mahdawi, was also taken into custody, but was released last week. In a memorandum filed in Khalil's case, Rubio did not cite specific evidence against the 30-year-old but argued that he is deportable under a statute in federal immigration law that says the government is entitled to deport noncitizens whose presence in the country damages national foreign policy interests. "The foreign policy of the United States champions core American interests and American citizens," Rubio wrote last month, "and condoning anti-Semitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective." Rubio said in March that at least 300 students had their visas rescinded after they were accused of expressing support for Palestinians or participating in campus protests. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators take over room in Butler Library Columbia's acting president said she was forced to call in the NYPD on Wednesday night after Pro-Palestinian demonstrators stormed Butler Library and refused to leave, despite repeated orders. Cellphone video showed protestors, many in masks, forcing their way inside, where they vandalized property and took over a reading room, as students were studying for final exams. University officials say at least two campus safety officers were injured during a crowd surge, as more people tried forcing their way in. CBS News New York saw two people leaving in an ambulance. "A group of protesters occupied one of the main reading rooms in Butler library, refusing to leave, and another group breached the front door causing substantial chaos—all of this as the bulk of our students are working hard to prepare for exams," Shipman said in a video message Wednesday night. "These actions not only represented a violation of University policies, but they also posed a serious risk to our students and campus safety." As the confrontation escalated inside, Pro-Palestinian demonstrators also clashed with police on the outskirts of campus, pushing barricades and shutting down the block. A student group affiliated with protestors posted a message reading in part, "Safety officers have choked and beaten us. But we have not wavered. We refuse to show our ids under militarized arrest." The NYPD took at least 80 people into custody. The university's acting president said the administration believes a significant portion of protestors were not affiliated with the university.
