University of Rochester: Wanted Posters of Jewish Faculty Members Glued to Walls

Sunday night, someone plastered a bunch of wanted posters around the University of Rochester. The posters featured various members of the faculty, many of whom were Jewish, along with text saying they were “wanted” for their response to Israel’s invasion of Gaza in response to the 10/7 attack on Israel by Hamas.

Hundreds of posters depicting Jewish faculty members as “wanted” were plastered across the University of Rochester campus in upstate New York on Sunday night, an antisemitic act the school’s president told CNN “would not be tolerated.”

The posters criticize faculty members for their alleged response to the war in Gaza. One poster accuses a faculty member of “ethnic cleansing” and “displacement of Palestinians.” A different poster accuses another faculty member of “racism,” “hate speech” and intimidation.

“I want to be as clear as I can that the University of Rochester strongly denounces the recent display of ‘Wanted’ posters targeting senior University leaders and members of our faculty, staff, and Board of Trustees,” university President Sarah Mangelsdorf said in a statement Tuesday. “This act is disturbing, divisive and intimidating and runs counter to our values as a university.”

Whoever put up the posters also did their best to make sure they wouldn’t be easily removed, using some kind of adhesive that damaged the walls. This was vandalism as well as anti-Semitism.

According to the university, the posters were put up with a strong adhesive that can damage the surfaces they were stuck to.

“Posters and displays affixed in this manner are unacceptable and considered to be vandalism to University property,” the university said in a message issued Monday. “Any activities, including the placement of these posters, that disrupt our normal operations and classroom instruction will not be tolerated.”

Here’s what the posters look like. 

The @UofR underground tunnel system has been vandalized with “wanted” posters of Jewish faculty members, including Hillel leaders, targeting them with threats.

These posters insinuate a call for violence. Yet, these same students accuse Hillel leaders of falsely labeling… pic.twitter.com/rbUUJCyM5J

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) November 12, 2024

The poster on the end is apparently the director of the school’s chapter of Hillel, an organization focused on Jewish students at colleges around the world.

Getnick said she hopes the university’s investigation will lead to accountability “coupled with meaningful education and healing.”

“They disproportionately singled out Jewish faculty and staff, and used language that spreads harmful, antisemitic ideas about Jewish people and Jewish indigeneity,” she said of the posters.

One Jewish student at UR said she was tired of this but refused to be identified for fear of retribution.

“I’m just tired. It’s been a long year and I want peace desperately, but doing things like this, targeting faculty, administration and staff to intimidate them and spread hate while also just making more work for the maintenance staff is wrong,” a Jewish student at the University of Rochester, who declined to be identified, fearing retribution, told CNN on Tuesday.

No one has taken credit for the poster and campus groups Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace aren’t talking.