Anti-Semitic incident at UVA is a warning amid escalating anti-Semitism on campus

Weeks earlier, the intended housemate planned a party that Romer and other housemates opposed. Romer began sharing anti-Semitic memes in a group chat involving the target, who “asked that (Romer) stop,” according to the criminal complaint he filed on Oct. 30. The target also alleged in his complaint that “several times” Romer “tried to fight (him).”

Late in the evening of October 23, Romer texted the group chat that “I’m going to liberate Palestine at about 12:30. Everyone is welcome to join in.” Romer then began asking for the location of his Jewish roommate. In a text message to his Jewish roommate, Romer surrounded his name with Stars of David.

On November 1, the Charlottesville Police Department announced charges against Romer for assault and battery, entering a property to cause damage, making “a threat to kill or inflict bodily harm,” and brandishing a firearm. The warning did not explicitly mention the victim’s Jewish background.

Charlottesville police did not respond Washington Examiner questions about the number of anti-Jewish hate crimes registered in the city since October 7, 2023. A spokesperson stated that the investigation had not yielded any additional information.

The Washington Examiner asked the University of Virginia about the alleged crime and whether it could be linked to a documented atmosphere of anti-Semitism on the university campus. UVA spokesman Brian Coy said he “can confirm that the identified individual (Romer) is not currently enrolled at the university. The university stands against anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, and we are taking swift action to support students who experience threats or harassment and to hold offenders accountable.”

Coy noted that the university responded to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by “doubling down on our commitment to supporting Jewish students,” with “much of that work … led by the UVA Task Force on Religious Diversity and Belonging.” He also shared a letter written by Jewish university students who wrote down their experiences campus has become politicized.

However, other Jewish students on campus have spoken out about hate. Between the start of the fall 2023 semester and January 2024, the university received 19 reports of “potential anti-Semitism” from students and faculty, according to the Daily progress. Parents said the answers students received were “generic boilerplate language that offered little story.”

In December 2023 an anonymous Jewish student cited feelings of fear, discrimination and being “unwelcome” on campus in a request for the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to investigate the university. Among the student’s concerns was the statement by the UVA chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine in support of the “right of colonized people everywhere to resist the occupation of their lands by whatever means they see fit” on October 8, 2023.

The OCR was handling the case, according to a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education Washington Examiner “still under investigation.”

Also during the past academic year, an Israeli student repeatedly informed Uva about the hostility he enduredon campus, according to a request to the OCR from the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism. The student was called “a bloodthirsty human being” and a “filthy Jew” during a protest in October 2023, “pushed, shoved and hit” while wearing a yarmulke and an Israeli flag, and was told by a professor to “shut down” ashamed of himself” because he walked around campus in a yarmulke. The student had moved to an undisclosed location as of April 2024 “out of fear for his own safety” and was “afraid to wear his yarmulke, Jewish star necklace or any symbol of his Jewish religion and Israeli heritage.”

The Anti-Defamation League has the university a “D” rating for his response to anti-Jewish hatred. Among reasons for the assessment, the ADL cited the school’s referendum “calling for divestiture from companies doing business with Israel,” multiple reports of anti-Semitic incidents, including death threats and physical violence, and an April 2024 pro-Palestinian campus protest that “was dissolved”. by state police” and which UVA’s president called “disturbing, frightening and sad.”

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ADL Vice President of Advocacy Shira Goodman told the Washington Examiner that while she could not comment on Romer’s case, the ADL’s fall 2023 Campus Climate Survey “revealed that a large number of students did not feel physically safe, and even fewer felt emotionally safe.” She said the ADL “urges university administrators to respond quickly and robustly to violations of rules and codes of conduct on their campuses.”

“Over the past year,” Goodman said, “we have seen a shocking increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campuses across the country — including incidents of vandalism, harassment and even assaults. As anti-Semitic language and rhetoric intensifies and continues unchecked, it is not surprising that this could escalate into acts of violence.”

Bet Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance contributor to Fox News Digital and hosts The Afghanistan Projectwhich takes a deep dive into nearly two decades of war and the tragedy wrought in the aftermath of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.