Rutgers: Fecklessness (and Deceit?) in Motion

 Rutgers University has been plagued with a series of anti-Semitic incidents in recent years, some of which have been reported on this site. It is clear that the university administration is unable or unwilling to protect Jewish students on campus from the pro-Palestinian activists like the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.

So in the recent spate of anti-Semitic violence sweeping the nation during the last round of fighting between Israel and the Hamas terrorists in Gaza, the chancellor and provost of the New Brunswick campus, Christopher Molloy and Francine Conway respectively, issued one of those vague statements condemning anti-Semitism without actually naming the principal perpetrators. That appeared on May 26. 

But even that was unacceptable to the SJP, who protested the statement.  And guess what.  Molloy and Conway apologized to the poor offended SJP Brown Shirts on May 27.

That prompted a response from Jewish Campus, a  Jewish advocacy group at Rutgers.

I have checked a number of sources for this story. This article from Volokh Conspiracy ( May 28) includes the full texts of the relevant statements. That is important.

In an interesting twist, on May 29, the president of Rutgers, Jonathan Holloway, issued a statement that Rutgers had not apologized, nor ever would, apologize for standing against anti-Semitism.

May 29, 2021

“Rutgers deplores hatred and bigotry in all forms.  We have not, nor would we ever, apologize for standing against anti-Semitism.

Neither hatred nor bigotry has a place at Rutgers, nor should they have a place anywhere in the world. At Rutgers we believe that anti-Semitism, anti-Hinduism, Islamophobia and all forms of racism, intolerance and xenophobia are unacceptable wherever and whenever they occur.”

Jonathan Holloway
President and University Professor

Here is today’s (May 29) Daily Targum (Rutgers campus newspaper) reporting that statement.

Yesterday (May 28), Daily Targum published this story on the matter. 

Note there are links to the original statement condemning anti-Semitism as well as the university apology to SJP and Palestinians. Both of those links, however, go back to today’s disclaimer by Rutgers. Not only are the links inaccurate as to advertised content, but they are dated one day after the article first appeared. 

Now I am cross-posting articles on this story from other sources.

Algemeiner  (May 28) Note that in this article too, the original condemnation and the apology links are replaced by the May 29 disclaimer.

Jewish Journal (May 28) Same thing with both links. They both open up with the March 29 disclaimer.

Daily Caller (May 27). Same issue with both links.

New York Daily Post  (May 28) Same issue with both links.

And Fox News.

There may be an innocent explanation for all this, perhaps someone just made an error with the links. That error could not have been on the part of all the above sources reporting the story. God knows how many others have that same issue. The error must have happened within the Rutgers administration and multiple other outlets just cut and pasted it. 

It just seems odd that all links reporting the initial May 26 condemnation of anti-Semitism and the subsequent apology on May 27, are routed to the May 29 disclaimer by Rutgers President Holloway.