NJ Jewish high school prohibits college reps from recruiting students unless university has safety plan
A Jewish high school is taking extra precautions to keep students safe amid the rise of antisemitism by refusing to allow college recruiters to come speak to students unless their university has a campus safety plan in place.
Rabbi Joshua Kahn is the rosh yeshiva at the Torah Academy of Bergen County (TABC) in Teaneck, New Jersey, and he joined "America's Newsroom" to discuss how the school has taken action to make sure its college-bound graduates stay protected.
"We're looking for a process, a process by which… [colleges] articulate a commitment from the highest of levels, from their school administration to protecting our students, as well as an action plan," Kahn told co-host Dana Perino Wednesday. "Our statement stays clear of politics intentionally and focuses purely on safety, which is a topic that I think is universal, and it's pretty basic to being able to value an education."
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"So we're looking for a school to just explain to us how they're going to ensure the safety of our students," he continued.
Kahn noted that the primary motivator behind the school's visitation policy is that the college is "deeply committed to education" to "defend freedom."
"When the institutions of higher learning are under attack, that's very scary to us," Kahn said. "The other factor that's very relevant to us is in about a week from now, we'll commemorate 85 years since Kristallnacht, which is the night of broken glass when Jews throughout Europe were attacked, their windows were broken, our houses of worship, our businesses, our homes, and we always say never again."
"We need to be able to take action to ensure never again is a very real point of action, not just the slogan, and so for us to take this stance was critically important."
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Kahn's remarks come after a Cornell student was arrested and charged in connection with threats made against Jewish students on an online messaging board over the weekend.
Court documents show that 21-year-old Patrick Dai, a junior at Cornell, has been federally charged in connection with the threats following an investigation by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Reports state that Dai posted threats to shoot up a multicultural dining room on campus and also called for the deaths of Jewish people and threatened to bring an assault rifle to campus.
Kahn said that the new rule to ensure the safety of students was not something that was "planned for" but is vital to implement moving forward as antisemitism continues to spread on campuses nationwide.
"It is not something we planned for, but it is something that's of critical importance to us," Kahn said. "We view our students as if they're our children, and we need to know that we're going to send them to safe places, places that will care for them."
FOX News' Stepheny Price and Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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