A faculty member at UR considers how damaging campus posters have targeted them

Rochester, New York – In the midst of indignation and an ongoing investigation, a victim of the distressing vandalism that targeted members of the University of Rochester’s Jewish community shared her story.

On Sunday night, hundreds of posters portraying members of the Jewish community as “wanted” were discovered in classrooms and buildings throughout the university.

The university’s public safety chief said Monday that the agency was looking into a vandalism incident involving hundreds of posters that appeared to be intended to scare university community members. According to the university, the structures were damaged by the adhesive that was utilized.

The institution didn’t issue a second statement until late Tuesday afternoon, claiming that the posters, which specifically targeted Jewish academics, were antisemitic and “disturbing and divisive.”

In a second statement issued Wednesday afternoon, the chief called the posters antisemitic and stated that the department was collaborating with the attorney general’s office, the FBI, and the second York State Police. It had also identified a number of individuals of interest, such as “current students, individuals whose current enrollment status is unclear, and other individuals.”

Joy Getnick found her face on several of the “wanted” posters that were strewn all around the school, which alarmed her. The posters, which expressly accused Getnick of racism, hate speech, and intimidation, featured her with a number of other Jewish employees.

“I don’t know who did it, but over a period of time, we realized that people had displayed hundreds of posters on campus,” Getnick said. “They don’t reflect who I am or what I do, and I think they speak more to the people who posted them and the hateful and biased ideas they have about Jews and Jewish life in Israel than they do about me, at least for my poster, I can say for sure.”

Getnick is in charge of the university’s Hillel group. A hub for Jewish life on campus is Hillel.

“There are so many different ways to be Jewish,” Getnick remarked. “We are proudly welcoming of all kinds of Jews, and a really intentionally inclusive and welcoming space.”

Getnick reported that other people impacted by the advertisements have offered her assistance.

“I knew most of them. I didn’t know all of them,” said Getnick. “I haven’t spoken with all of them, but to kind of process what was happening and try to understand their reactions to it. And I think in general, people are very upset and they’re horrified to be targeted personally in that way. I’m a very public figure because I’m the director of the inclusive Jewish life organization on campus. I certainly know many students. People know me. The accusations were untrue. You know, I’ve read it so many times, the poster made accusations about me being racist and intimidating. The racism charges, an antisemitic charge against Jews that erases Jewish identity and heritage is part of a minoritized community, and just makes me some white woman with power, with this idea of that being oppressive, and that isn’t who I am. It’s not how I experience life. The other accusations were about my response to protests on our campus, which was completely inconsistent with my actual response, and also an accusation that I’m part of a committee that promotes settlement expansion in the West Bank, which I certainly am not on. There is a fabulous partnership committee between the Jewish Federation and the city of Modi’in, in which is in Israel, and it’s a People to People partnership, just like there would be sister cities between the City of Rochester and cities in Israel.”

Getnick described the posters as seriously damaging.

“Makes it harder for our Jewish students to be Jewish on campus and feel that they have safe space, and that is horrible and appalling and totally unfair,” said Getnick. “There’s really significant harm. The ideas that those posters put forth onto our campus will linger for years, long after people remember where they even got the ‘mis-ideas’ and antisemitic beliefs about the people targeted.”