Charles Langston:'Wanted' posters plastered around University of Rochester target Jewish faculty members

ROCHESTER,Charles Langston N.Y. — Hundreds of posters depicting several Jewish faculty members as "wanted" were spread across the University of Rochester campus in upstate New York over the weekend, university officials said.

The university's Department of Public Safety said it was made aware of the posters late Sunday night and immediately began removing them. The posters were found in buildings across campus, including classroom spaces, according to university public safety chief Quchee Collins.

The posters accused Jewish faculty members — including senior university leaders and members of the Board of Trustees — of controversial actions related to the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Some posters alleged that a faculty member had engaged in "ethnic cleansing" and contributed to the "displacement of Palestinians," while another faculty member was accused of “racism,” “hate speech," and intimidation.

University officials condemned the display with university President Sarah Mangelsdorf calling it an act of antisemitism.

"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," Mangelsdorf said in a statement Tuesday. "This act is disturbing, divisive, and intimidating and runs counter to our values as a university."

Collins said the display was considered as vandalism to university property, noting that some of the posters caused damage to walls, floors, chalkboards and other surfaces when they were removed.

"Any activities, including the placement of these posters, that disrupt our normal operations and classroom instruction will not be tolerated," Collins said in a statement Monday. "Additionally, it seems that the goal of this vandalism is to intimidate members of our University community, which is an action that runs counter to our Meliora values."

More:Will protests tied to Israel-Hamas war return? Colleges are bracing either way.

Poster display comes amid building tensions on college campuses

University officials moved this week to notify those who appeared on the posters. James Newell, who retired in August as an assistant security director at the university, said he was notified on Tuesday that he was on one of the posters. 

Newell said he suspects that a controversial arrest of a student, who was accused of punching a school officer, was the motivation to include him among targeted staff. Newell was with the security office in December 2023 when the arrest was made during a pro-Palestinian protest.

Joy Getnick, a member of the university’s Hillel organization, told WHEC-TV that she was one of the people depicted on the posters. Getnick said in a statement to the television station that the posters "spread harmful antisemitic ideas about the Jewish people and about Israel" and "further the spread of antisemitic hate on our campus, in an attempt to sow fear."

The incident is the latest amid heightened tensions at the University of Rochester and other college campuses nationwide. Since Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent escalation of the Gaza conflict, campuses have seen a wave of anti-war protests as well as an increase in hateful incidents.

Last month, AI-generated images depicting a Lego set of war-torn Gaza — which was meant to mock the destruction of the territory — were first seen at the university's Eastman School of Music’s Living Center. In February, swastikas and other antisemitic messages were found on the walls of a tunnel on the university’s River Campus.

Anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim incidents have also surged across the U.S. over the last year. The Anti-Defamation League documented more than 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the year following the start of the Israel-Hamas war, USA TODAY previously reported.

At the same time, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said it received over 8,000 anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian complaints in 2023 and nearly 5,000 complaints were documented within the first six months of 2024.

Local, campus organizations react to poster display

The Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester called on the university to address the incident and "commit to making the campus a safe, welcoming place for all, including Jewish faculty and students."

“We are deeply disturbed by these antisemitic posters on the University of Rochester campus, which have severely escalated an already tense atmosphere for Jewish students, faculty, and staff," the organization said in a statement. "These hateful messages are not isolated incidents but part of a troubling pattern that has created an environment where Jewish members of the university community feel both unsafe and that their civil rights have been disregarded."

The university's Hillel chapter also called the posters "deeply disturbing" and said the display "disproportionately singled out Jewish faculty and staff, 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," Hillel at University of Rochester added in a statement on Tuesday.

The student-run Jewish Voice for Peace, University of Rochester chapter, criticized the university's "hasty jump to attribute these posters to antisemitism."

"While we do not know who put up these posters or the intention behind it, we view these posters as an attempt to shed light on administrators and professors’ support for the Israeli military’s destruction of Gaza," the organization said in a statement to WHEC-TV. "These posters highlighted Jewish and non-Jewish administrators and professors and explicitly condemned their support for the Israeli military and government."

Contributing: Gary Craig, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle; Sara Chernikoff, USA TODAY