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Two Syracuse University students now face criminal charges after one of them allegedly tossed a clear plastic bag of pork into the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity house while members were gathered to celebrate Rosh Hashanah. The disgusting disrespect happened during one of the most sacred days on the Jewish calendar, and authorities quickly moved to treat the act as far more than a prank.
Police say the bag was thrown against an interior wall, splattering pork across the floor, and that one suspect fled into a waiting vehicle driven by the other before both were soon apprehended and charged. Local prosecutors have filed burglary charges as a hate crime along with criminal nuisance counts — a reminder that actions on campus have legal consequences, not just campus disciplinary ones.
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick made clear this will not be dismissed as a silly college stunt, calling it “not a foolish college prank” but a crime directed at students during a holiday. Syracuse University officials called the incident abhorrent and said it violated the institution’s core values, underscoring that campuses must be places of safety and basic decency.
For observant Jews, pork is not just offensive — its presence renders food spaces nonkosher and is deeply insulting when forced into a sacred setting. That cultural and religious context is why prosecutors treated the timing and target of this act as central to the hate crime determination, and why students rightly feel violated rather than amused.
Make no mistake: conservatives and patriots do not defend thuggery in any guise. This was a cowardly targeting of a religious minority on their holy day, and it fits into a troubling pattern of campus intolerance that too often goes unchecked until it becomes criminal. Colleges must stop pretending that identity-driven disrespect is harmless or inevitable and instead enforce discipline, security, and consequences swiftly.
At the same time, America is a nation of laws and due process matters — accused students deserve their day in court, but that does not absolve institutions that allowed the environment in which this could happen. Syracuse has referred the pair to its Office of Community Standards as well as facing criminal prosecution, and administrators should be judged on whether they protect students or merely posture about values while failing to act.
Patriotic Americans should be united in condemning this outrage, not splitting hairs over whether to call it a joke or a hate crime when the evidence points to targeted disrespect and the law has been invoked. Parents, trustees, and law enforcement must demand accountability, and universities must make clear that religious liberty and basic human decency are not optional campus trends but nonnegotiable rules of civilized life.
