The FBI charged 19-year-old Stephen Spencer Pittman with arson for setting fire to Beth Israel Congregation, Mississippi’s largest and most historic synagogue, early Saturday. The blaze severely damaged the building’s library, offices, and sacred texts. Authorities say Pittman admitted to targeting the synagogue because of its “Jewish ties” and called it the “synagogue of Satan.”
Vandals broke into a private residence where Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity brothers at the University of California, Santa Barbara live, and smeared a swastika on a bathroom mirror – an act critics say is part of a broader surge in antisemitism at the university. The incident drew immediate reaction from Jewish groups, including AEPi, which called on university leaders “to take concrete, visible action to ensure the safety and well-being of all students, including Jewish students who are being explicitly targeted.”
The Cooper Union agreed to settle a Title VI antisemitism lawsuit brought by 10 Jewish students who said they felt unsafe when barricaded inside a campus library during anti-Israel protests that followed Oct. 7, 2023. Under the settlement, the college will compensate the students, hire a Title VI coordinator, and ban masks at protests.
Following a nearly two-year investigation, University of California, Davis assistant professor Jemma DeCristo will remain on the job. Three days after the October 7 terrorist attacks, DeCristo posted on X, threatening “Zionist journalists” and their children, and including a knife and blood-drop emojis. She later claimed the post was satire, not a literal call for violence.
Northwestern University, NU Graduate Workers for Palestine, and two graduate students jointly filed to dismiss a class-action lawsuit that alleged the university’s mandatory antisemitism training was discriminatory. The lawsuit, which was initially filed in October, was “dismissed without prejudice, leaving the door open to potentially refile the case” at a future point.
Spain’s Movement Against Intolerance (MCI) recently filed a complaint with authorities over an “antisemitic hate map” in Catalonia. The map identified 152 schools, businesses, companies, and nonprofits allegedly tied to Jews or Israel, labeling all of them as “Zionist.” The map included addresses, phone numbers, and emails, and encouraged users to add new locations. The platform that hosted the map has reported it is no longer available. MCI called the project “a tool for targeting, stigmatization and incitement to discrimination.”