Akron, OH – The University of Akron confirms it is investigating a student who has been accused of making troubling antisemitic threats in a social media conversation with a Jewish woman in Florida.
The accusations were first revealed by a New York City grassroots antisemitism organization after they were tipped off about the Aug. 24 posts on Instagram.
“We were notified of this young man’s antisemitic threats from an anonymous tip that came through our direct messages on Instagram and shortly thereafter, after vetting the tip and his comments to make sure that they were in fact true, we posted about the antisemitic threats to our Twitter and Instagram handles,” said Liora Rez, a Solon native who heads the organization stopantisemitism.org.
The student, who has not been charged as of Tuesday with any crime, is accused of writing “I wanna kill the Zionist who have killed my people for 75 years.”
In an audio file attached to the post, he is also alleged to have said, in Arabic, “I’m going to kill the horrible people you call Zionists.”
Rez says soon after her organization posted the comments on their social media accounts, the student deleted his Instagram account and scrubbed his Facebook account of most all of its content.
Rez says her organization has also filed complaints with police in Tallmadge, where the student lives, and with the FBI.
FOX 8 spoke with Tallmadge Police Chief Ronald WIlliams, who could not confirm on Tuesday that his agency had a record of the complaint.
“It’s extremely troubling, it’s extremely frightening. Antisemitism is skyrocketing in America,” said Rez. “We do not want empty words of condemnation that we are often hearing from college administrations, with a lack of action. The man’s threats are extremely serious and before somebody gets hurt, we are demanding that the University of Akron expel him from their campus.”
