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Two Syracuse University students were arrested after one allegedly entered the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity house and hurled a clear plastic bag of pork against an interior wall during a Rosh Hashanah dinner, splattering the contents across the room. The incident, which occurred at about 6 p.m., shocked Jewish students who had gathered to observe one of their most sacred holidays and immediately drew law enforcement attention.
Authorities later identified the suspects and say one fled the scene in a vehicle driven by the other; both are 18 and were captured shortly afterward. Prosecutors have charged them with burglary as a hate crime and with criminal nuisance, reflecting the timing of the attack and that the house is a historically Jewish fraternity.
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick made clear the office will not dismiss this as a mere college prank, calling it a targeted crime against a group of students celebrating a religious holiday. Syracuse University officials likewise condemned the conduct as abhorrent and referred the students to the Office of Community Standards for potential disciplinary sanctions under the student code.
Let there be no confusion: any act aimed at humiliating or desecrating religious practice deserves the harshest condemnation. Conservatives stand firmly with religious Americans of every faith when campus mobs or thoughtless students try to weaponize tasteless pranks into assaults on liberty and conscience, and we expect both criminal accountability and institutional discipline.
At the same time, Americans who value due process should demand the facts be laid out clearly in court — we do not cheer for rushed labels, but neither should anybody excuse intimidation simply because it wears the veneer of a “joke.” Prosecutors have the duty to prove malicious intent beyond a reasonable doubt, and universities must follow transparent disciplinary procedures rather than simply tweeting outrage and moving on.
This episode is a reminder that college campuses can be battlegrounds for basic decency, and parents and taxpayers have a right to expect schools to protect religious freedom on campus. Syracuse has roughly 2,500 Jewish undergraduates, meaning this was not a random prank confined to one household but an attack on a substantial community that deserves protection and respect.
Our message to university administrators, prosecutors, and fellow citizens is clear and patriotic: defend the right of Americans to worship and celebrate without fear, prosecute real crimes when they occur, and resist the grown-up equivalent of shrugging at hate disguised as humor. If institutions insist on treating every misdeed as mere youthful mischief, they will fail the very students they are charged to serve; conservatives will keep calling for accountability, common sense, and justice.
