On Feb. 23, campus offices and groups received an anonymous email threatening violence against Jewish students and professors on campus. According to a campus-wide email sent from Department of Safety and Security director Keiselim Montás, the threat was determined not to be credible following an investigation in conjunction with the Hanover Police Department.
According to Cara Marantz ’25, who works at the box office at the Hopkins Center for the Arts, the Hop was one of the groups that received the email.
The Dartmouth was able to obtain the email sent to campus, whose subject line read “My manifesto to Dartmouth.” In the email, the would-be attacker identified themselves as “Jamal” and described his intent to bomb and shoot Jewish students and professors as well as “back-stabbing liberals.” The email cited violence against Palestinian women and children along with Islamophobia as sources of motivation for the attack. The DoSS email concluded by reminding students that there is “no place for hate, including antisemitism and Islamophobia, on Dartmouth’s campus.”
The anonymous email address included the term freedom fighter. According to the Department of Justice, freedom fighters believe their ideological beliefs justify acts of violence. The DoSS campus-wide email also stated that “several” other universities received identical threats that were also hoaxes.
According to the Cornell Daily Sun, Cornell University received an anonymous email around 12 p.m. on Feb. 23. In the article, Cornell’s Associate Vice President for Public Safety David Honan was quoted as describing the threats in the email as “hateful, incendiary language.” In addition, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian, the University of Pennsylvania also received an email that contained “hateful rhetoric based on religion and political affiliation.”
“Hatred will never intimidate us, and Hillel will always be a safe space for Jewish students,” Rabbi Seth Linfield wrote in a statement to The Dartmouth. “Hillel will continue to provide support and resources to our students to help secure the safety of the Jewish community at Dartmouth.
Montás declined a request to comment.
