Anti-Semitic Hate Crimes on the University of North Dakota’s Campus

In the interest of maintaining positive communication between the UND Jewish Student Organization and the UND administration, I’m going to not share my opinion on this story just yet. For now, I wanted to share the official statement from the JSO as well as the news story that will be published in tomorrow’s Grand Forks Herald.

The Jewish Student Organization’s Statement Regarding Anti-Semitic Occurrences on the University of North Dakota Campus

Recently, there have been several incidences of anti-Semitic hate crimes that have directly attacked Jewish students on the campus of the University of North Dakota. Complaints regarding these issues to the administration and the University Police Department have been made by the victims, their families, resident assistants in the affected halls, the Jewish Student Organization as well as our advisor, Jack Weinstein. As of April 22nd, two months after the initial complaints were made, neither the University nor the police department has made any tangible effort to address the issue with the aggressors involved or the larger campus as a whole. As an organization that represents every Jewish student on campus, we refuse to accept this lack of action by those who are meant to provide and protect safe learning and living environments for every student attending the university, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation. We, as an organization, call on the university to acknowledge the fact that these despicable acts are in fact hate crimes that have no place on our campus. In addition, we fully expect and demand that the administration follow the established policies laid out in the Code of Student Life to ensure that these ignorant aggressors face and understand the consequences of their actions and hateful words.

Signed,

The Members of the University of North Dakota’s Jewish Student Organization

I have a feeling this will not be going away quickly.

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