Ivy League Schools Get Heat After Pittsburgh Statements Don’t Mention Jews
Two Ivy League universities got called out about their statements addressing the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, as they failed to mention the tragedy was an act of anti-Semitism.
The leaders of Columbia University and Dartmouth College shared vague statements with their students earlier this week regarding the shooting, where 11 people were killed at prayer by a gunman who reportedly said, “All Jews must die.” Neither mentioned that it was a hate crime against Jews — or mentioned Jews at all.
Columbia University revised its statement following outrage from students past and present, the Columbia Spectator reported. The first sentence went from, “We are deeply saddened by the senseless violence at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue on Saturday morning,” to “We are deeply saddened by the horrific antisemitic attack on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue on Saturday morning.”
Classic @Columbia to send an email about the #TreeOfLifeSynagogue shooting and mention anti-LGBT and anti-black hatred but NOT ANTI-SEMITISM. The world has gone mad , I’m embarrassed today to call myself an alumnus & regret having donated to @CC_Columbia this year. #Columbia
— Zachary Neugut (@ZacharyNeugut) October 29, 2018
To be fair Columbia College privately DM’d me an apology and revised their statement here: https://t.co/orlMzrlW9I
To also be fair they shouldn’t make this mistake in the first place and their new statement is barely better
Conflating anti-semitism with other hatreds is idiotic
— Zachary Neugut (@ZacharyNeugut) October 29, 2018
Both universities lumped attack together with other alleged crimes. Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon sent an email to students with the subject, “Recent National Events.” He wrote that events across the country, which he didn’t specify, have been “targeting people for who they are,” listing religion among political views, gender and race.
The editorial board at the university’s newspaper, The Dartmouth, took note, slamming the vague letter.
The letter was “astounding in its vagueness and passivity,” they wrote. “One would assume that the purpose of such an email would be to condemn the violence of the attacks and provide support for students who feel threatened or who are in mourning. But if this was Hanlon’s intention, then he utterly botched the execution.”
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO