Hundreds of posters depicting Jewish faculty members as “wanted” were plastered across the University of Rochester campus in upstate New York on Sunday night, an antisemitic act the school’s president told CNN “would not be tolerated.”
The posters criticize faculty members for their alleged response to the war in Gaza. One poster accuses a faculty member of “ethnic cleansing” and “displacement of Palestinians.” A different poster accuses another faculty member of “racism,” “hate speech” and intimidation.
“I want to be as clear as I can that the University of Rochester strongly denounces the recent display of ‘Wanted’ posters targeting senior University leaders and members of our faculty, staff, and Board of Trustees,” university President Sarah Mangelsdorf said in a statement Tuesday. “This act is disturbing, divisive and intimidating and runs counter to our values as a university.”
One of the targets of the vandalism, Gregory Heyworth, associate professor of English and computer science, told CNN in an email he was grateful to the university for its public stance and for the president’s “clear condemnation of the antisemitism of the posters.”