Jewish professor confronts student who said Israel supporters will 'burn in hell'

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NY college refuses to condemn antisemitism

Union College professor Stephen Berk details what happened when he confronted a student about making antisemitic comments.

A New York Jewish studies professor is calling out his college's response to his dialogue with a student who said Israel supporters have a "free guaranteed spot in hell."

Union College professor Stephen Berk joined "FOX & Friends" Tuesday to explain what happened when he addressed the hateful comment and how the school responded.

The exchange happened after a junior at the Schenectady college said on social media that everyone who attended a campus bingo night to "benefit Israeli victims of terror" has "a free guaranteed spot in hell."

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The in-class dialogue that followed between Berk and student Ayah Osman was posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. Osman said Berk misrepresented what she said but admitted she believed everyone who attended the campus event should "burn in hell."

"There's a lot of hate out on campus," Berk said Tuesday. "What really surprised me was the reaction of the administration." 

"The vice president of academic affairs was in the audience," he continued. "She heard it. She didn't do anything. At the end, she got up and made a what I thought was a self-serving speech and did not rebuke the students."

David Harris, Union College president, said in a statement, "We do not condone the student's words. We also do not condone the manner in which this student was confronted in a public setting, nor how she has been portrayed in social or traditional media."

Campus leaders and Jewish voices are sounding the alarm on antisemitism at U.S. colleges in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attack against Israeli civilians. A Cornell University law professor is calling for the school to evaluate antisemitism on campus after anti-Israel events across multiple college campuses across the country. (Pat Greenhouse / Boston Globe via Getty Images | Joseph Prezioso / AFP via Getty Images)

Berk said he didn't confront the student directly but that the student got up and said she was the one who made the statement. 

"They threw me under the bus," Berk responded.

"They actually conflated me with a student. They said they didn't condone what the student said, and they didn't condone what I had said in rebuking that and really rebuking the student. It was absolutely amazing."

"There's something wrong here," he continued, stressing that Union College is "one of the best liberal arts colleges in the United States" with good faculty and students "as good as anybody's."

However, he said the administrators took "their eye off the ball" and there is a "lot of anti-Israeli sentiment" at schools all over the country.

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"What Edmund Burke said several centuries ago is right. The only thing for evil to triumph is when good men and women do nothing."

"I will stand up for what I think is right. Israel is in the right here," he continued.

"Don't be frightened of bigotry. … This is the United States of America. And you have to stand up and have one last point on the stage. When you say, ‘Burn in hell,’ you know what that means to people who are Jewish and people who are sensitive here? We burned in hell and, dammit, we're not going to hear that again."

Host Brian Kilmeade concluded by calling on all universities to "stand up" to their students and "stop being afraid" of young people who do not understand history.

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FOX News' Beth Bailey contributed to this report.