In the past week, the University community has faced local and national scrutiny due to the appearance of ‘wanted’ posters expressing grievances about select University affiliates.
This coverage followed a Nov. 12 message from the Office of the President titled “Message Regarding ‘Wanted’ Posters,” which marked the University’s first public correspondence that explicitly labeled an action related to on-campus discourse over the Israel-Palestine conflict as antisemitic.
“This isn’t who we are,” President Sarah Mangelsdorf said in the statement. “This goes against everything we stand for and we have an obligation to reject it.”
The message was disseminated over email as well as being referenced the next morning in the @Rochester newsletter, which is delivered to staff, students, and faculty every weekday.
Organizations’ response to ‘wanted’ posters
One student organization, JVP University of Rochester, a chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, released their own statement on Instagram on Nov. 13.
“The administration’s hasty jump to attribute these posters to antisemitism, without any proper investigation, comes across as an attempt to censor any discussion of the University of Rochester complicity in the Israeli army’s ongoing genocide in Gaza,” the statement reads. “We will continue to peacefully protest our University’s complicity in the Israeli military’s destruction of Gaza and urge all members of the campus community to join us in peacefully opposing genocide and war.”
UR Hillel released a statement on Instagram the same day, specifically reassuring viewers that the posters did not target or mention students. “We also hope that this is an opportunity for the University to reflect on what is needed to instill meaningful education about Jewish Peoplehood and antisemitism, so that UR is a place where Jewish life can fully and safely thrive,” the statement reads.
Rochester Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which has released statements in the past concerning University response to pro-Palestinian protests, have not released an official statement concerning the ‘wanted’ posters.
Local coverage of on-campus reaction
Locally, University students — who were only listed by their first name on broadcast — were quoted as being dissatisfied with a lack of support from the University in supporting their Jewish and Israeli identities in a Nov. 14 broadcasted segment with local station WHAM13.
A student listed as “Gilad” was one of multiple interviewed students whose concerns were featured on the segment. “My concern is, if the school is comfortable with the students doing this, and there are no repercussions, what are the next steps?” the student said.
According to the DPS statement released on Nov. 15, “the University remains committed to holding all responsible parties accountable to the fullest extent possible,” inclusive of legal repercussions for individuals found culpable for displaying the posters.
At the end of the clip, WHAM13 suggests reaching out to the special security detail through the Rochester Jewish Foundation, a non-campus affiliated organization, for anyone feeling unsafe as a result of these recent events.
The Rochester Beacon, a local nonprofit paper in the area, mentioned specific financial exposure the University has to Israel-related investments as found through minutes from the Feb. 5 meeting of the school’s Ethical Investment Advisory Committee (EIAC).
The committee, which is composed of University members, including undergraduate students, professors from various departments, and the University’s Chief Investment Officer, has met twice this calendar year.
“The Committee asked the Investment Office to send a letter to the LTIP investment managers who are invested in those eight companies, expressing the EIAC’s concerns about their military/government ties in Israel and desire to eliminate exposure to them,” the Feb. 5 notes said.
In EIAC meeting notes from March 4, the letter was noted as being sent to the investment managers, as well as a request being made for facilitated communication with the Simon School Investment Club regarding companies previously screened for ties to the Israeli government and military.
“Professor [William] FitzPatrick will provide updates to the Faculty Senate and Investment Committee in the coming months,” the March 4 notes stated. “He shared a draft recommendation and will incorporate suggestions provided by the committee and circulate a revised version.”
According to the Beacon, “of 15 companies flagged for potential dealings with the Israeli government and military, UR had $259,000 of exposure to eight of them through its stakes in pooled funds it has no discretion to exit. The $7.8 million represented 0.2 percent of the university’s Long Term Investment Pool.”
On Nov. 13, the Democrat and Chronicle (D&C) released an article about the posters. In comparison to other outlets, the D&C acquired the perspective of retired State Police investigator James Newell, one of the University affiliates on the posters. According to the D&C, Newell was made aware by University administration of his likeness being used on the posters last Tuesday.
The following day, D&C released another article covering last spring’s pro-Palestine encampment and the overarching University response from various campus organizations in more detail, as well as a quote from Associate Professor Gregory Heyworth, who was on one of the fliers.
According to the D&C, “In an email, Heyworth said he was grateful UR officials had the ‘courage’ to condemn ‘antisemitism hidden behind acts of putative political expression.’”
Heyworth was also quoted by CNN as being “accused of ‘threatening to dox’ protesting students, in a poster that actually committed the offense of doxing.”
National news sources, organizations, and politicians’ responses
Wider national coverage, inclusive of statements from political representatives, has varied widely in its coverage of the events surrounding the posters and associated statements.
In a Nov. 13 article from The Guardian, both Congressman Joe Morelle and Senator Chuck Schumer were quoted as condemning the posters on the social media website X. Schumer also was covered on local and national news as denouncing the incident at a Senate meeting. “It is rank intimidation, and has no place in a university community or anywhere else,” he said.
Governor Kathy Hochul also posted on X about her supportive actions towards the University’s investigative forces to a mixed response of commenters, labeling the posters as a “disturbing, dangerous act of antisemitism.”
Similarly, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization dedicated to preventing the defamation of Jewish people, has posted online in support of the University’s efforts to hold the perpetrators of the posters accountable.
Both the New York / New Jersey and national ADL X accounts have posted about the University, with the NY/NJ account’s post linking viewers to a Newsweek article titled “Wanted Posters Targeting Jewish Faculty And Staff Glued To NY Campus Walls.”
News sources and political blogs outside of the University have relayed different breadths of information within their articles, reflecting the perspectives on campus with varying levels of consideration.
An article from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s (JTA), a news outlet that does coverage on “political, economic and social developments affecting Jews all over the world,” focuses their perspective on Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester director Meredith Dragon and UR Hillel director Joy Getnick.
Both Dragon and Getnick noted significant concerns with the makeup of the posters and their effect on Jewish student life. In regards to Getnick’s likeness being on the posters, JTA states that “the only other recorded instance of pro-Palestinian protesters targeting a campus Hillel director by name took place at Baruch College, in New York City, in September.”
Similarly, NBC News centered Dragon and Getnick in their coverage of the incident through local outlet News10NBC.
Jewish media outlets have also picked up the story, including Haaretz, Israel’s oldest daily newspaper. In the subheader of Rachel Fink’s Nov. 15 Haaretz article on the posters, it is specified that only some of the individuals depicted on the posters are Jewish — something not explicitly noted in some of the other coverage done nationally.
Online discourse enters the media fold
For online posters under the guise of anonymity, the r/URochester subreddit has not only been a catalyst for student discourse, but also a place for news producers to garner statements.
The first instance of Reddit discourse on this topic, a post from Nov. 11 titled “Wanted posters on campus,” attached a screenshot of the email sent to the University community at large concerning the posters, asking for more information.
In the past, the subreddit has been known as a source for getting rid of textbooks and sourcing housing. Within the past year, the closest allusion to unrest amongst student life on campus was a post from seven months ago loosely referencing a pro-Palestinian protest outside of Wallis Hall with two comments.
More recently, a post linking a RochesterFirst article addressing the University’s response to an assault of students on the pedestrian footbridge garnered over 20 comments.
In comparison, the ‘wanted’ posters have now generated six separate posts on the Internet forum with over 600 cumulative comments.
Even comparing happenings at a similar level of public viewership, a post on the subreddit linking a Nature article about the investigation of Professor Ranga Dias’ faking of results in published papers about room-temperature superconductivity — an event which was covered by both the Campus Times and the New York Times to national reception — has only two comments.
The responses online vary from debates on the meaning of Zionism to virtual mudslinging. However, this discourse has made its way into the public zeitgeist.
Amidst the commenters was Taylor Galgano, a news producer who helped write CNN’s earlier-referenced article about the posters, titled “Hundreds of ‘wanted’ posters were plastered across the University of Rochester campus. Jewish faculty members were targeted”.
CNN’s article hosts anonymous quotes from Jewish students on campus who comment on their fear and exhaustion concerning current campus events, focusing on the impact of the posters on those referenced in them as well as those tasked with removing them. Absent from the article is mention of additional pro-Palestinian protesting on campus.
As the investigation continues, University community members have been advised by administration to utilize the online Policy Against Harassment and Discrimination (PADH) form as well as the University CARE network in the event that they feel that conduct on campus violates said policy.
