PerspectiveJewish Student Accuses College of Ignoring Wild Anti-Semitism

Published 9 January 2020

A former Pennsylvania college student says in a lawsuit that she dropped out before the start of her junior year because of a string of hateful and threatening anti-Semitic incidents that the school failed to appropriately address.

A former Pennsylvania college student says in a lawsuit that she dropped out before the start of her junior year because of a string of hateful and threatening anti-Semitic incidents that the school failed to appropriately address.

Olivia Messer writes in the Daily Beast that

Cassidy Pyser, who is Jewish and enrolled at Kutztown University in 2015, alleges her roommate at the nearly 9,000-student public school about 70 miles northwest of Philadelphia sent her photos of Adolf Hitler, a hooded klansman, and a reference to Jews being burned during the Holocaust. When things escalated, the roommate allegedly smashed Pyser’s mezuzah, a Jewish religious symbol made up of a decorative case containing Hebrew verses from the Torah.

Pyser moved rooms, but the former roommate worked in the dining hall—set amid lush greenery and red-brick buildings—and allegedly refused to serve her, according to the suit, which was first reported by The Morning CallThe suit fit a pattern of a surge in allegations of anti-Semitic activity and violence in the Northeast U.S. in recent months, including other incidents on college campuses.

When Pyser reported the alleged intimidation and threats to her residence hall director and to the campus police, university officials did nothing to stop it, her lawsuit claims.