First appearance on Fox: A Jewish student group filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Cooper Union, a private university in Manhattan, for failing to protect students from an increase in anti-Semitic incidents after the outbreak of Israel’s war last year, Fox News Digital exclusively said. obtained.
“Cooper Union failed to adequately protect not only our customers, but also other Jewish students on campus, in the face of pro-Hamas hatred,” said Lawfare Project founder and Executive Director Brooke Goldstein said of the lawsuit. “No student should be exposed to intimidation, fear, or hatred while receiving an education.”
The Lawfare Project, a nonprofit legal organization dedicated to protecting civil rights for Jews that includes the law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Schorer LLP, announced Tuesday that the school’s 10 Jewish students will be represented by Cooper Cooper. filed a lawsuit against the union.
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is a small, private, four-year university located in Lower Manhattan. It has been the scene of anti-Israel protests, including a tense clash in the school library last year.
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Pro-Palestinian protesters move through Cooper Union in New York City as Jewish students remain in the library, which was reportedly locked for security. (Credit: Taylor Roslyn Lent)
Immediately after the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel on October 7 of last year, pro-Israel and Jewish students on the Copper Union campus attacked the school library on October 25 as anti-Israel agitators. He talked about his experience of being barricaded in and said that he felt like he was in danger. We chanted outside and banged on building doors. The New York City Police Department later announced that the Jewish students studying in the library were not barricaded in the building, but that school officials had asked plainclothes officers to respond to the school as tensions escalated.
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People on the Cooper Union campus on October 30, 2023 in New York City. (Spencer Pratt/Getty Images)
“I was nervous, and so were the people,” said one unidentified student. he told CBS at the time.. “They were acting very aggressively, especially in spaces where ostensibly Jewish students were sitting.”
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Demonstrators chanted “Liberate Palestine,” and students at the school, which has fewer than 1,000 undergraduate students, reiterated to the media that the incident had the potential to escalate into more violent scenes.
“I really don’t know what would have happened if the door had remained open,” another student said, according to CBS at the time.
Parents of Jewish students at the school said: CBS in December They said they repeatedly called on the school to increase protections for Jewish students, but “nothing happened.” Another parent said her daughter was “scared” to be on campus.
The lawsuit alleges that Cooper Union failed to adequately address the rise in anti-Semitism on campus.
“Despite the alarming rise in anti-Semitism, colleges and universities across the country are turning their backs on Jewish students,” said Zipporah Reich, director of litigation at the Lawfare Project. “We will fight tooth and nail for our clients who bravely assert their rights under the law.”
A police officer moves pro-Israel protesters away from people gathered for a demonstration in support of the Palestinians in Washington Square Park on November 24, 2023 in New York City. (Yuki Iwamura/AFP via Getty Images)
The lawsuit is just the latest lawsuit filed by The Lawfare Project against universities on behalf of students since the war began in Israel six months ago. In December, the group filed a lawsuit against Carnegie Mellon University on behalf of Jewish students, alleging they were exposed to “extensive anti-Semitic discrimination while attending the university.”
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In February, the Lawfare Project filed a separate complaint with Columbia University on behalf of Jewish students who were “forced to withdraw from their academic programs for seeking religious and safety considerations,” according to a previous press release. filed a lawsuit.
The Cooper Union lawsuit is just the latest lawsuit filed by The Lawfare Project on behalf of students since the start of Israel’s war. (Steven Yang, Fox News Digital)
Universities across the country, particularly competitive schools, have come under fire since October 7 over their handling of anti-Semitism on campus.
A billboard truck on the University of Pennsylvania campus calling for the firing of University of Pennsylvania President Liz McGill. (Fox News Digital)
The University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University both had their presidents resign amid national and campus outrage after they went to Congress in December and were outraged over the university’s response. antisemitism of each campus.
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Jewish high school students in the New York City area were warned last month not to apply to Cornell University after it was reported that the university was not protecting Jewish students from repeated incidents of anti-Semitism. And as recently as last week, pro-Palestinian protests continued to erupt on some university campuses, including Rutgers University, with anti-Israel slogans like “One Solution, Intifada Revolution.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Cooper Union for comment on the lawsuit Tuesday afternoon, but did not immediately receive a response.
