Jewish Student Assaulted Near University of Michigan

Dion J. Pierre

Law enforcement clash with pro-Hamas demonstrators at the University of Michigan on Aug. 28, 2024. Photo: Brendan Gutenschwager/X

Law enforcement officials are investigating a “Nazi like” assault of a Jewish student allegedly carried out by six people near the University of Michigan late Saturday night.

According to the Ann Arbor Police Department, the beating occurred when the group accosted the 19 year old victim, whose name has not been released, and demanded to know whether he was Jewish. The young man said that he was, after which the suspects slammed him on the concrete, according to police. They then kicked and spit on him before leaving.

The Anti-Defamation League offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrests of the culprits.

“I have communicated with the University of Michigan police staff, and our goal is to discuss safety over the next few weeks,” Ann Arbor Police Department chief Andre C. Anderson said in a statement issued on Sunday. “There is absolutely 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 we will work with the county prosecutor’s office to aggressively prosecute those who are responsible.”

Ann Arbor Police have confirmed that the men inflicted “minor injuries” on the victim, who was not hospitalized. Its investigation of the incident is ongoing.

University of Michigan Hillel also commented on the assault, saying, “We are in regular communication with state and federal law enforcement.”

University of Michigan president Santa J. Ono addressed the assault on Monday morning.

“We strongly condemn and denounce this act of violence and all antisemitic acts,” he said in a statement. “Antisemitism is in direct conflict with the university’s deeply held values of safety, respect, and inclusion and has no place within our community. The University of Michigan is a place where all students — regardless of their race, sex, nationality, and religion — deserve to feel safe and protected as they pursue the important work of becoming citizens of the wider world.”

As The Algemeiner has previously reported, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor has long been a hub of anti-Zionist and antisemitic activity, leading to campus disruptions and diminishing quality of life for Jewish students. In Nov. 2022, an unidentified male snatched a female student by the arm while crossing paths with her on campus and made antisemitic statements. In July 2023, someone graffitied swastikas and homophobic slurs on two off-campus a fraternity houses.

Recently, dozens of candidates from the anti-Zionist Shut It Down (SID) party won election to the school’s Central Student Government by running on a platform which promised to sever the University of Michigan’s academic and financial ties to Israel. After assuming power, CSG president Alifa Chowdury (SID) defunded the school’s 1,700 student clubs by vetoing the summer term budget, which had been “unanimously” supported by the CSG Assembly, and vowed to block any spending bill that would fund them in the fall term. The measure was, in SID’s view, strategic. It argued during the campaign that crippling university operations would inexorably lead to a boycott of Israel.

“CSG merely serves as an extension of an institution that has perpetuated systems of oppression by maintaining the current status quo of neocolonial capitalism,” SID said in a manifesto issued in March. “Every dollar coming out of this university is blood money. Student government cannot operate as usual as we witness the systematic murder of Palestinians. Student life cannot continue as normal when our tuition and labor are being used to fund a genocide.”