On Feb. 12, a Jewish student found a newspaper entitled “New York War Crimes,” which they alleged contained antisemitic content, in a hallway at Pomona College’s Lincoln Hall. The student reported the newspaper to Haverim, a Jewish student organization, which formally reported the incident to Pomona’s administration on Feb. 14.
Pomona College Acting President Robert Gaines addressed the incident in an email to the Pomona community that same day.
“Pomona College values and protects freedom of speech and acknowledges that may include deeply offensive and concerning expressions of hateful bias,” the email read. “We want to make clear, however, the College strongly condemns such hate speech, including antisemitic statements and all other forms of discriminatory and harassing content.”
Gaines added that Pomona launched a bias incident review according to the college’s Hate Crimes and Bias-Related Incident Protocol within 24 hours of receiving the report. He also said that Pomona would not disclose the contents of the newspaper in hopes of mitigating harm to the community and that updates about the report would only be shared with the individuals involved.
The newspaper — it remains unclear who distributed it — was designed as a spoof of the New York Times. Dated Oct. 7, 2024, the paper’s front page featured a headline reading: “ONE YEAR SINCE AL-AQSA FLOOD: REVOLUTION UNTIL VICTORY.”
The newspaper, whose quotes were highlighted in a Feb. 17 post by Haverim, included a note from its editors titled “Memorializing October 7.”
“Hamas’ operation on October 7 was a moment of rupture,” the note read. “It revealed Israel’s permanence to be an expensive facade, and exposed the Zionist project’s fragility … the entity is frail, weak, rotting — a death cult.”
Haverim Vice President Emilio Bankier PO ’27 said that he was initially shocked to hear about the newspaper.
“It was not just something posted online but physical, in an academic area — an academic setting — just right next to the Scripps Voice like any other newspaper; just like casual reading,” Bankier said.
“[Jewish and Israeli students] see it as a personal attack,” Bankier said. “I see it as a personal attack.”
Claremont’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) shared a different perspective in a statement to TSL, saying that the newspaper’s finding in Lincoln Hall was not alarming nor surprising.
“Ethnic studies and the fields within it were born from social movement organizing and are rooted in an analysis of power structures and a commitment to collective liberation that uplifts Palestinians, Jews, and other marginalized groups alike,” the statement read. “If students and faculty are reading, studying, and critiquing materials from current protest movements, that is a good thing.”
Claremont Hillel Director Bethany Slater sent out an email about the incident to members on Feb. 13.
“We have asked the administration to make a public statement to condemn the paper and affirm that Jewish students are valued as a part of the Pomona community,” she wrote. “Additionally, we have suggested that administration work with us to provide antisemitism training to the Pomona community to foster greater inclusivity on campus.”
In an email to TSL, Hillel Director of Community Relations elaborated on the group’s hopes to collaborate with the Pomona administration in the future.
“Propaganda materials that glorify violence against Jews threaten Jewish students,” she wrote. “We appreciated Acting President Gaines’ swift response in condemning antisemitism. This incident underscores the need for dialogue and for the wider Claremont Colleges community to better understand the Jewish experience; we look forward to working closely with Acting President Gaines as a resource in countering antisemitism.”
While Bankier said he did not know who put the newspaper in Lincoln Hall and that the paper itself did not seem to be otherwise associated with the Claremont Colleges, he noted, “Presumably, at least one person responsible for that area of the building would have seen it … and should have been wise enough to say, ‘This doesn’t belong here.’”
However, JVP maintained that the newspaper’s placement in Lincoln Hall was not antisemitic.
“The goal of these allegations of antisemitism from Claremont Hillel and Haverim is not to protect Jewish students on campus, but rather to create a moral panic and stifle criticism of Israel and Zionism,” JVP’s statement read. “Claremont Hillel and Haverim’s continued conflation of Judaism with Zionism endangers Jews in the name of protecting Israel.”
The statement elaborated that “the current effort to scare and discipline members of the university community who criticize Israel and Zionism” is mirrored nationwide in right-wing attacks on ethnic studies programs and universities overall. “It is our responsibility as scholars, and in JVP as Jews, to oppose the moral panic these groups are working to create,” the statement said.
In a statement to TSL, Dean of Students and Vice President of Student Affairs Avis Hinkson encouraged all students to reach out to resources such as class deans, Monsour Counseling, 7C Health/Timely MD, the Office of Chaplains and Campus Safety.
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