Jewish sexual assault victims kicked out of support group file complaints with US Ed Department

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NEW PALTZ – Two Jewish students at SUNY New Paltz who were expelled from a sexual assault awareness group and claim they were cyberbullied, harassed and threatened over their Jewish and Israel identities, have filed a formal complaint with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

The complaint alleges the college was aware of the situation, yet in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, allowed a hostile environment to proliferate on campus for Jewish survivors of sexual assault, to the point where both students felt unsafe to attend class and said they felt “shunned,” “isolated,” and “fearful.”

The complaint was filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law on behalf of the students and the group “Jewish on Campus.”

The complaint says the students were victimized three times – first by sexual predators, second, by the anti-Zionist leaders of a support group who expelled the students, and third, by the college, which failed to hold accountable those who had discriminated against the students and failed to satisfactorily address the hostile climate on campus for Jewish survivors of sexual assault.

The college issued a statement reacting to the complaint:
SUNY New Paltz has provided access to resources and support for those impacted by the events of this past year and we continue our active engagement to support our Jewish students and employees around the rise of antisemitism, to address antisemitism and bias concerns when they arise, and to continue dialogue and educational efforts. As a public institution, we value the First Amendment and uphold the free exchange of ideas.  

We unequivocally condemn any attacks on SUNY students who are Jewish, and we will not tolerate anti-Semitic harassment and intimidation on campus. 

The issue came to light in December when Cassandra Blotner posted a message on her personal Instagram account that read: “Jews are an ethnic group who come from Israel. This is proven by Genealogical, historical and archeological evidence. Israel is not a ‘colonial’ state and Israelis aren’t ‘settlers. You cannot colonize the land your ancestors are from.”

Members of the group, New Paltz Accountability, founded by Blotner and another students, founded to combat sexual assault, denounced the post and demanded Blotner defend her views, arguing her personal post “concerns the organization as a whole.”

Ofek Preis, another NPA member who is a Jewish Israeli student, shared on her personal Instagram, the same post that Blotner had posted. Shortly thereafter, the group stopped contacting her about the organization’s activities and blocked her access.

The claim said the NPA began to publish statements doubling down on the stance and made it clear to Preis and through several posts on Instagram, that the group was only open to those who reject Zionism.

The complaint maintains the “behavior and the harassment that ensued had a harmful impact and resulted in a hostile environment for the larger community of Jewish and Israeli survivors of sexual assault at SUNY New Paltz.

The complaint said the Jewish Student Union explained how the college’s half-measures and empty rhetoric” signaled that anti-Semitism is acceptable on campus and that the university’s values of tolerance and inclusivity don’t apply to Jewish sexual assault survivors.

“Excommunicating and excluding Jewish and Israeli survivors from NPA denies us of our right to fight against sexual assault on college campuses and hold our universities accountable,” Preis said.




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