Gov. Hochul talks tough at Cornell on antisemitic threats, condemns prof who hailed Hamas attacks who hasn’t been fired
Gov. Kathy Hochul visited Cornell University Monday to denounce threats against the Jewish community there, and also blasted comments by a professor who supported Hamas’ terror attacks.
In a talk at the school, Hochul called for criminal charges against those who made online threats to slit the throats of Jewish students, and she later ripped professor Russell Rickford, who called Hamas’ sick killings “energizing.”
“Absolutely condemn what he said,” the governor told the Post at an event Monday in the Bronx.
At the Ithaca school, she said antisemitism has no place in education on campus.
“Ensuring that we have the right of free speech, we’ll always protect that,” Hochul said following a roundtable with Cornell president Martha Pollack. “But when speech crosses over into hate speech and into hate crimes, that’s when we have to make sure that students know that we’ll step up and protect them.”
Hochul’s remarks included calls for charges against those making the threats and promises to protect Jewish students on campus.
“If you’re going to engage in these harmful actions, hate crimes, breaking our laws, you will be caught and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Hochul said of antisemitic acts perpetrated at Cornell and around the state.
“The people who are threatening them will get no refuge here,” Hochul added.
The governor said she’d ensure the Jewish living center had the resources to beef up security, like installing more security cameras.
“I want them to know they’re not alone, that they have the state of New York backing them,” Hochul said.
Though Hochul didn’t mention Rickford at Cornell, later made it clear when questioned by the Post at a Monday event at in the Bronx that she “absolutely condemned” what he said. She also reiterated her disgust for the hate messages at Cornell.
“These are uncharted times and it’s a frightening time for these students. I could feel their pain,” she added. “When they read a post that says, quote, ‘If you see a Jewish person on campus, follow them home and slit their throat.’ That’s out there on campus bulletin boards, on social media. So there’s real fear out there and I condemn it.”
Cornell University Police are investigating the posts and say they’ve notified the FBI that the incident may constitute a hate crime.
“Gonna shoot up 104 west,” one anonymous post referring to a kosher dining hall said on the “Greekrank” Greek life website, leading to the lockdown.
Cornell and other higher education institutions around the state and country have been plagued with an outpouring of similar hateful messages, some directly threatening Jewish students.
The Cornell Daily Sun, a student-run newspaper, reports one post directly threatened to follow Jewish students home and slit their throats.
Some students at Cornell’s Jewish Living Community are spending nights elsewhere amid the threats, according to a student who attended the roundtable.
Matan Auerbach, a Jewish student from Chicago, said he was eating mac ‘n’ cheese at the kosher dining hall when a friend shared the posts in a group chat.
“They said 104, which meant they know what this is,” Auerbach said. “They know Cornell deeply.”
Still, Auerbach said he’s pleased with the university’s response, including the police presence outside the dining hall complex and promise to quickly enhance additional security measures around the facility.
“I’m confident in this place,” Auerbach said.
