Campus police were dispatched to a Jewish community center at Cornell University over the weekend after a series of threatening messages were posted online, officials said.
The “horrendous, antisemitic messages” targeting the school’s Center for Jewish Living triggered an immediate response from police at the school in Ithaca, New York, university President Martha Pollack said in a statement to students.
Campus police also notified the FBI of a potential hate crime being committed, she said.
“Threats of violence are absolutely intolerable, and we will work to ensure that the person or people who posted them are punished to the full extent of the law,” she said. “Our immediate focus is on keeping the community safe; we will continue to prioritize that.”
The threats appeared on a website unaffiliated with the school called Greekrant, according to Cornell’s student newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun. The website allows people to post about various colleges’ fraternities and sororities.
The school’s Center for Jewish Living said it will have police stationed at the facility 24/7 until further notice.
The threats appeared amid a surge in antisemitic incidents seen globally since war broke out between Israel and Hamas on Oct. 7, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
The Biden administration on Monday is expected to announce new actions aimed at addressing the rise specifically on college campuses.
The departments of Justice and Homeland Security, since the start of the war, have been working with campus law enforcement, as well as state and local officials, to track threats and share related information.
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona will meet with Jewish organizations on Monday to discuss steps the Biden administration is taking to counter antisemitism on campuses. Cardona and domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden will also meet with Jewish students in a roundtable discussion later this week, a White House official said.
