Cornell University has said that it has canceled classes for a day after a student was charged with making anti-Semitic threats, including one to “shoot up” a dining hall that serves kosher food.
No classes will be held Friday so as to observe a “community day, in recognition of the extraordinary stress of the past few weeks,” a spokeswoman for the Ivy League university told AFP.
The threats allegedly made by Patrick Dai, 21, come amid what the US government says is a rise in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic events in the wake of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza after the surprise attack by Hamas on October 7.
Dai allegedly posted to a Cornell discussion forum “calling for the deaths of Jewish people,” with a post saying he was “gonna shoot up 104 West,” a dining hall that mostly caters to Jewish students and is next to the Cornell Jewish Center, according to the Justice Department.
“In another post, Dai allegedly threatened to ‘stab’ and ‘slit the throat’ of any Jewish males he sees on campus, to rape and throw off a cliff any Jewish females, and to behead any Jewish babies,” the statement said, adding that Dai also threatened to shoot Jewish students at the school’s Ithaca, New York campus.
