Gov. Kathy Hochul talked tough about antisemitic threats at Cornell University Monday, but failed to call out a professor at the school who went viral for calling Hamas’ attack “exhilarating” and “energizing”.
In a speech at the school, Hochul called for criminal charges against those who made online threats to slit the throats of Jewish students, as she danced around the issue of Russell Rickford, who called Hamas’ sick killings “exhilarating.”
“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 Cornell’s and other antisemitic acts perpetuated 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.
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” for 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.