Student Leader Fears Potential Violence After Jewish Conspiracy Posters Appear at Auburn University

By Staff Reporter
Posted on 04/16/17 | News Source: Algemeiner

A student leader at Auburn University in Alabama is concerned “acts of violence will follow” the recent appearance on campus of posters encouraging Christians to “disobey” Jewish power, she told The Algemeiner on Friday.

Lily Buder, the president of Auburn’s Hillel, said the fliers — credited to a group calling itself the Auburn White Student Union, which is unaffiliated with the university — not only “promoted typical conspiracies about Jews, but encouraged people to actively resist us for existing.”

Buder said she worries that such “resistance” could take the form of anything from physical violence to desecrating synagogues to publicly publishing the addresses of Jewish students.

Included on the posters were pictures of major Jewish historical figures — including Chabad leader Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl and Shas founder Rabbi Ovadia Yosef — and supposed quotes from them stating “gentiles” should serve Jews. The fliers also provided an address of an “alt-right” website where people could get more information.

The posters were found in a central campus building of the Alabama university and on cars parked in an Auburn parking lot.

Buder said they were quickly taken down, many by “outraged” students — both Jewish and non-Jewish.

Poster found at Auburn. Photo: Facebook.

“The fact that the fliers appeared around Passover shows such blatant aggression, such blatant antisemitism,” she said. “This is not about arguing for a different political view or for freedom of speech. This was a hate crime.”

White supremacist Richard Spencer announced the same week that he would be speaking at Auburn on April 18 (the event has since been cancelled by Auburn administrators, citing safety concerns).

“I don’t believe there’s any way that this was unconnected with Spencer,” Buder said about the fliers.

Ed Youngblood — faculty adviser for Hillel and an associate professor of media studies — said, “The Auburn White Student Union is not indicative of the views of the average Auburn student. In fact, I think those views are exactly opposite of what most students here believe.”

He added that he was happy to see the administration put out multiple statements of condemnation, regarding both the posters and Spencer, as well as by the school’s chapter of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

But, Buder said that while she appreciated condemnations, “that’s not enough.”

“I want to see administrators investigating and finding out who is responsible for the posters and the website,” she said. “There are security cameras everywhere, they have the resources to track these people down. But, all I’ve seen so far is the university trying to make sure they are not held accountable.”

Last month, as reported by The Algemeiner, posters proclaiming “Ending White Privilege Starts With Ending Jewish Privilege” were found at the University of Illinois at Chicago.