New York University’s (NYU) Jewish center, the Bronfman Center, was temporarily closed on Wednesday due to social media posts from an NYU student that were “anti-Semitic in nature.”
The Bronfman Center sent out an email on Tuesday night saying that they “became aware of several public online postings by an NYU student which were anti-Semitic in nature and potentially threatening.”
“Due to heightened tensions at NYU, we are taking all threats seriously and have notified NYU Public Safety and NYPD,” the email continued. “While we do not believe that there is a credible threat, we are taking every necessary precaution.”
A follow-up email from the Bronfman Center was sent out on Wednesday afternoon announcing that the center was back open after law enforcement and security experts concluded that there wasn’t a risk.
“In October, we tightened our security protocol,” the email read. “We will be pursuing additional measures, including modifications to our building and active shooter trainings. Better safe than sorry.”
NYU spokesman John Beckman said in a statement, “Late Tuesday night, the University became aware of some disturbing posts on social media. There were no specifics in the social media posts, and we had no information about a particular threat against the Bronfman Center.”
“However, against the backdrop of the killing of Jewish worshippers in Pittsburgh and the national increase in anti-Semitic incidents, and in an abundance of caution, the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student life was closed while the issue was investigated and safety issues were evaluated,” Beckman continued. “Needless to say, we take these issues very seriously and act accordingly. NYU condemns anti-Semitism and hate of all forms. We have taken appropriate security precautions, and the Bronfman Center has re-opened.”
Beckman added that NYU is “actively reviewing [the] matter” but couldn’t discuss the specifics.
While the name of the student has not been made publicly available by the school, the New York Jewish Week reported that “several campus-affiliated groups have pointed to the same student as the source of the social media posts.”
“An anonymously run Facebook page called ‘SJP Uncovered’ posted screenshots of the following post from the student’s Twitter account on Dec. 3: ‘thanks to whoever got my account suspended just cuz i expressed my desire for zionists to die .and f**k twitter for not doing a better job of deleting entire accounts that do nothing but tweet violently racist things,” the Jewish Week reported.
Other screenshotted tweets from the student that SJP Uncovered highlighted included a tweet of the student writing “I love Hitler” and “I hope every zionist kkk*nt @ nyu is crying right now,” the latter being an apparent reference to the recent BDS resolution that was passed that has reportedly resulted in “inflamed tensions” on campus.
NYU Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and NYU Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) both issued statements that the student has not been associated with either group and that they condemn his social media postings.
The Washington Square News, where the student in question was once an editor, wrote in a statement on their website, “It has come to WSN’s attention that tweets and posts written by a former editor of the newspaper have stirred fear in the Jewish community at NYU and caused the temporary closing of the Bronfman Center. We wanted to clarify that the editor in question no longer works for WSN, and we do not condone the statements made in the aforementioned tweets and posts. We apologize to any students affected by the statements.”
The student eventually issued an apology for his statements, writing, “people have been conflating my anti-Zionist views with anti-Semitism, pulling up Tweets from 4+ years ago — falsely associating them with what’s happening now and threatening to ruin job prospects for me, a person that [sic] extremely vulnerable due to socioeconomic reasons; and all while not having the slightest clue about what was actually said or by whom.”
“My views on Zionism do not reflect my views on Judaism,” he added.
He then apologized “to anyone that genuinely feels scared.”
“I would have done things differently had I known it would actually instill fear in innocent people,” the student said. “I’ve spoken to the Wellness Center, to Office of Community Standards and Public Safety. They all know that there is no threat of danger.”
NYU’s Realize Israel wrote in a Facebook post that they were “deeply troubled” by the student’s statements.
“As a result of these statements, the Bronfman Center for Student Life was temporarily closed last night and through this afternoon,” the post said. “The Bronfman Center serves as a home, and as of late, a safe haven for Jewish students on campus. Given the events of last week and the rising tensions and divisions on campus, this space has been even more important, and it has become even clearer that it is difficult to separate anti-Zionism from anti-Semitism.”
The post continued, “While the Bronfman Center has now reopened, we still feel concerned that recent events have opened the doors to racism and discrimination. While the individual who is associated with these statements is not a part of or affiliated with any of the campus groups that proposed last week’s BDS resolution, we have seen that a resolution that promotes alienation and segregation will only lead to increased hate crimes and hate speech.”
The student in question has not responded to the Journal’s request for comment as of publication time.
