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On Wednesday, the chancellor of Rutgers University at New Brunswick, Christopher J. Molloy, and the provost, Francine Conway, condemned anti-Semitism in a message to the campus.
"We are saddened by and greatly concerned about the sharp rise in hostile sentiments and anti-Semitic violence in the United States. Recent incidents of hate directed toward Jewish members of our community again remind us of what history has to teach us. Tragically, in the last century alone, acts of prejudice and hatred left unaddressed have served as the foundation for many atrocities against targeted groups around the world," they said. "Last year’s murder of George Floyd brought into sharp focus the racial injustices that continue to plague our country, and over the past year there [have] been attacks on our Asian American Pacific Islander citizens, the spaces of Indigenous peoples defiled, and targeted oppression and other assaults against Hindus and Muslims."
On Thursday, they apologized. They sent another message, headlined "An Apology." That message said, "We are writing today as a follow-up to the message sent on Wednesday, May 26th to the university community. We understand that intent and impact are two different things, and while the intent of our message was to affirm that Rutgers-New Brunswick is a place where all identities can feel validated and supported, the impact of the message fell short of that intention. In hindsight, it is clear to us that the message failed to communicate support for our Palestinian community members. We sincerely apologize for the hurt that this message has caused."
Then on Saturday, Rutgers president Jonathan Holloway posted a statement called "On Hatred and Bigotry."
In it, he wrote, "Rutgers deplores hatred and bigotry in all forms. We have not, nor would we ever, apologize [sic] 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."
