Some Anti-Semitism is Worse than Others

At times, I find myself just shaking my head when I hear of anti-Semitic attacks, especially verbal ones, because they are so ubiquitous. But this last one, sent to me by @ctlaw, enraged me, and I felt compelled to share it.

A religion assistant professor at Haverford College in Pennsylvania decided to terrorize a colleague, a man who not only worked in the same building that he did, but even lived in the same neighborhood. The man, Guantian Ha, was on sabbatical leave during this period and used the time off to torture this family online over seven months:

In total, Ha sent more than 50 threatening messages, many invoking the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler, and the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack in Israel as tactics to frighten the peer, according to court records. The peer’s spouse and three children temporarily moved out of their home twice. The family did not allow the children to play in the front yard or wait for the school bus each morning during this period.

If that isn’t bad enough, Ha also specifically threatened the man’s infant son, posted a photo of the family’s mailbox and described their home to imply the threats could be made good.

He also wasn’t satisfied with terrorizing his colleague, but also the man’s wife and children, too, with all kinds of anti-Semitic remarks and threats.

I was especially upset because you would think that a professor of religion might have some basic understanding of Judaism; maybe he did and it didn’t matter.

The President of Haverford, Wendy Raymond, made a statement about Ha’s actions:

‘I am deeply distressed by these allegations and want to state in the plainest of terms that any form of harassment or discrimination based on identity is unacceptable, antithetical to our values and has no place at Haverford.

I expect her to fire him after he’s done his jail time.