‘Wanted’ posters aimed at Jewish faculty and staff appear at NY university, officials say

(Daily Caller News Foundation) – “Wanted” posters targeting several Jewish faculty and staff recently appeared at the University of Rochester, according to the university’s president.

President Sarah C. Mangelsdorf alleged that those individuals may have been singled out for being Jewish, according to a statement. She noted that there were others targeted with the posters, including university Board of Trustees members.

The posters declared multiple university professors and personnel as “Wanted” for alleged war crimes connected to the war in Gaza sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, WHEC reported.

One person who was named “Wanted” by the alleged anti-Jewish posters was Joy Getnick of the Hillel at the university, the outlet reported. She told the outlet that the posters “spread harmful antisemitic ideas about the Jewish people and about Israel. They further the spread of antisemitic hate on our campus, in an attempt to sow fear.”

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the posters reported by officials were “rank intimidation” and said he contacted school administrators to launch an investigation.

“Those responsible must be held fully accountable,” Schumer wrote on X. “These actions must be condemned loudly.”

“My first reaction was one of, just disbelief,” Meredith Dragon, the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester’s CEO, said. “I mean, I do believe that it was targeted at the Jewish community and those who have close relationships in the Jewish community.”

Mangelsdorf condemned the posters in her statement. “This act is disturbing, divisive and intimidating and runs counter to our values as a university,” she added.

The university president pointed to the school’s Department of Public Safety, which she said was investigating the incident.

“Posters and displays affixed in this manner are unacceptable and considered to be vandalism to University property,” Department of Public Safety Chief Quchee Collins said in a statement. “Additionally, it seems that the goal of this vandalism is to intimidate members of our University community.”

The university’s chapter of the student-managed Jewish Voice for Peace criticized the school’s apparent assumption that the posters were antisemitic “as an attempt to censor any discussion of the University of Rochester’s complicity in the Israeli army’s ongoing genocide in Gaza,” WHEC reported.

The student-run group claimed not to know who put the “Wanted” posters up, according to the outlet.

“Antisemitism is bigotry or hatred against Jewish people on the basis of their identity and we unequivocally oppose it, and work to dismantle it along with all forms of oppression. It is not, however, antisemitic to criticize the Israeli government and military that is committing war crimes,” the organization continued.