Aaron Marcus, a conservative Jewish student at Rutgers University, claims that he has been harassed for over a year by school officials and his fellow undergrads because of his pro-Israel views.
Marcus is a columnist for “The Daily Targum,” his university’s student newspaper, where often writes about Israel and conservatism. These columns, he says, often don’t go over well at the school.
In a blog written on the conservative Young America’s Foundation website, Marcus wrote that he is “frequently singled out by students with verbal and physical threats.”
His claims are backed up by an article on Newsrealblog.com that showed actual Rutgers students’ Facebook posts following an article Marcus wrote with the pro-Israel viewpoint.
“Id [sic] be happy to beat him with a crowbar. Violence doesn’t solve problems, but it shuts up people who shouldt [sic] speak,” one Rutgers student posted.
The criticism of Marcus has now made its way into a “satirical” campus newspaper, “The Medium,” which stole his name, picture, and title of his column, “Marcus My Words,” to mock him by running an anti-Semitic article that praised Adolf Hitler.
The article, which came out Thursday, April 4 with the headline of “What about the good things Hitler did?” has Marcus repeatedly praising the genocidal Nazi dictator and attacking Israel.
“More importantly, the surviving member of the Jewish faith were inspired by these ‘atrocities’ to move to Palestine… and which I think would not have happened without the help of ol’ Adolf,” it says at one point.
“So the next time you are driving in a car, watching the movie ‘Armageddon’ or walking past Hillel, be sure to give Hitler a little thanks. I know I will.”
If that wasn’t bad enough, the end of the article has a miniature biography of “Aaron Marcus” which is blatantly false: “He is very excited to be graduating this semester and plans to grow up to be very rich, cause a bunch of problems, and then blame poor people for all of them.”
Now the U.S. Department of Education‘s Office of Civil Rights is investigating because Rutgers allegedly violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The act states that any organization receiving public funds that taxpayers of all races contribute to must not be spent in any way that “encourages, entrenches, subsidizes or results in racial discrimination.”
Marcus told The Daily Caller the threats don’t stop with the students. “I have been threatened by a university official,” he said, “and the University has continuously failed to stop this recurring theme.”
He added that the “mock” column that ran hit close to home because of his Jewish faith and personal connection to the Holocaust.
“My family lost many relatives in the Holocaust and the column was really a shocking and painful revelation,” he told TheDC.
“Almost every Jewish person has been affected by the Holocaust so stealing my name and image to praise Hitler is disgusting, offensive and I believe against the law,” he continued.
According to Marcus, the administration has yet to respond to his inquires about the article.
The Rutgers University administration responded to the incident in a statement sent to TheDC:
Federal courts extend broad protection to student media. However, a recent article in the Medium, purporting to be written by student Aaron Marcus and using Mr. Marcus’ photograph, is extremely offensive and repugnant. No individual student should be subject to such a vicious, provocative and hurtful piece, regardless of whether First Amendment protections apply to such expression. The Medium’s article is particularly despicable in light of Mr. Marcus’ Jewish faith. Rutgers University is investigating this matter as a bias incident under the university’s anti-bias policies.