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University of Michigan student attacked after acknowledging he is Jewish

The police are investigating the assault as a hate crime.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A University of Michigan (UoM) student was attacked late Sunday night after saying he was a Jew, the Ann Arbor Police posted to X Monday.

“The 19-year-old male victim reported he was walking when a group of unknown males behind him asked if he was Jewish,” the police said. “When the victim replied yes, the group of males proceeded to assault him. The suspects fled the area on foot.”

The young man, who was walking on a city street right next to the campus, did not require urgent medical attention after the assault, they added.

He reported the incident around noon, and the police immediately categorized it as “a bias-motivated assault” and opened an investigation, as they take such crimes “very seriously,” they added.

Police Chief Andre C. Anderson strongly condemned the assault.

Noting that he had already contacted the university’s police staff, he said in a statement, “There is no place for hate or ethnic intimidation in the City of Ann Arbor. Our department stands against antisemitism and all acts of bias-motivated crimes.”

“We are committed to vigorously investigating this and other hate-motivated incidents and will work with the County Prosecutor’s office to aggressively prosecute those who are responsible,” he added.

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Eyal Yakoby, a Jewish activist against antisemitism, later posted to X more details of the attack after speaking to the student and his mother.

After the student confirmed he was Jewish, the men “proceeded to throw him to the ground, kick him and spit on him,” he wrote. “Thankfully, while the student is bruised, he is okay.”

Yakoby added that he “informed [university] President Ono,” who “reached out” to the family.

“The school police are actively working to find the culprits,” he concluded.

UoM Hillel Director Rabbi Davey Rosen said that the police chief had called him personally to reassure him that his men were taking the incident seriously.

The Anti Defamation League has also offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the culprits’ “arrest and conviction.”

The university has seen a huge jump of antisemitic incidents on campus since the October 7 Hamas invasion of Israel and massacre of 1,200 people set off the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

Many Jewish students complained that their reports of antisemitic harassment were not taken seriously by the school’s administration, which allowed an anti-Israel encampment to remain on campus for a few weeks during the spring semester before calling in the police to shut it down.

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The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights investigated 75 complaints, and found that UoM had failed to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which theoretically could lead to federal funding being pulled from the university unless it mends its ways.

While President Santa Ono reacted publicly to the Sunday assault by saying that the university stands “firmly against antisemitism and all bias-motivated behavior,” a group of about 50 anti-Israel protestors was allowed to demonstrate noisily at a UoM event last month for more than an hour while school personnel “gave them multiple warnings” that they were “violating university policy” according to Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs Colleen Mastony.

Four protestors who refused to disperse were ultimately arrested. Only one was tangentially affiliated with the school, as a temporary employee, she said.