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January 23, 2024
VIA EMAIL
Dr. Francine Conway, Chancellor
Rutgers University – New Brunswick
83 Somerset Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Ms. Michelle Jefferson, Associate Dean, Student Conduct
and Conflict Resolution
Rutgers University - Office of Student Conduct
115 College Avenue
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Re: Rutgers’ Students for Justice in Palestine
Dear Chancellor Conway and Associate Dean Jefferson:
We write on behalf of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the oldest pro-Israel organization in the U.S., dedicated to fighting antisemitism in schools, on college campuses, and wherever this ugly bigotry arises. As you may know, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is investigating Rutgers University for allegedly failing to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment and intimidation in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. OCR’s investigation was triggered by a student-supported Title VI complaint filed by the ZOA.
We were gratified to see that last month, Rutgers suspended a major perpetrator of antisemitism at Rutgers, the anti-Israel hate group that calls itself “Students for Justice in Palestine” (SJP). But horrifyingly, Rutgers has already lifted the suspension.
SJP plainly has learned nothing from such a short-lived suspension. In announcing that this hate group has been reinstated, an SJP member (her face masked by a keffiyeh) called for the liberation of their homeland – “Palestine” – “from the river to the sea,” which is a well-known call for Israel’s elimination. In addition, the SJP publicly praised and called for a global intifada. This is a call for violence and terrorism against Jews and Israelis around the world.
In Associate Dean Jefferson’s letter to SJP about its interim suspension, she reportedly wrote that there was a “reasonable basis to conclude” that SJP “pose[d] a substantial and immediate threat to the safety and well-being of others.” In a separate letter, Chancellor Conway reportedly wrote that while Rutgers is “a public institution that protects and values free speech and the open exchange of ideas, this exchange cannot come at the expense of individual and campus safety.”
It is based on these continuing concerns for campus safety and the well-being of students and others that Rutgers should reinstate SJP’s suspension for the remainder of the academic year, with specific conditions that must be met before the group can ever be reinstated.
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