New York University (NYU) administrators are withholding the diploma of transgender undergraduate student Logan Rozos after Rozos condemned the “atrocities currently happening in Palestine” during his commencement address.
According to the NYU Senior Vice President for Public Affairs and Strategic Communications, John Beckman, the university is withholding Rozos’ diploma pending “disciplinary actions,” in which Beckman accused Rozos of “misusing his role as student speaker to express his personal and one-sided political views.”
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Rozos, a Black trans man, attended NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, pursuing a concentration in “cultural criticism and political economy.” He is also an actor best known for his debut role in the award-winning series David Makes Man, and was listed as one of GLAAD and Teen Vogue’s “20 Under 20” list of LGBTQ+ changemakers in 2020. Rozos is also the narrator of several trans-themed audiobooks.
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Rozos was announced as a student speaker for the Gallatin commencement ceremony last month. In his speech, he said, “As I search my heart in addressing you all today, my moral and political commitments guide me to say that the only appropriate thing to say in this time and to a group this large is a recognition of the atrocities currently happening in Palestine.” His statement was met with applause by the crowd.
He continued his speech: “I want to say that the genocide currently occurring is supported politically and militarily by the United States, is paid for by our tax dollars, and has been livestreamed to our phones for the past 18 months. I do not wish to speak only to my own politics today, but to speak for all people of conscience, and all people who feel the moral injury of this atrocity.”
Despite Rozos’ anti-war speech being met with cheers and applause from students across the auditorium, some pro-Zionist organizations condemned his speech, including End Jew Hatred.
The university promptly issued a statement denouncing Rozos and announced that it would withhold his diploma. Additionally, Rozas’ student profile has also been taken down from NYU Gallatin’s website.
As Jewish supporters of the State of Israel, we fundamentally reject the notion that it is antisemitic to question the policies of the State of Israel.
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, co-founders of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream
NYU’s actions occur as the U.S. president has accused institutions of higher learning of not doing enough to combat on-campus antisemitism after the widespread protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza. The president has used antisemitism as a pretext for threatening to withhold federal funding from universities that don’t agree to his demands. His demands have included banning face masks on campus, expanded powers for arresting student protestors, and controlling administrative oversight of Middle Eastern studies and other areas.
Around August of last year, NYU updated its student conduct guidelines to denote terms like “Zionist” as a form of discriminatory speech. A Zionist is a person who believes in the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel. However, the term has been used pejoratively to criticize one’s support for the Israeli government’s racist or colonialist actions against Palestinians. As a result, some consider the term to be antisemitic.
“For many Jewish people, Zionism is a part of their Jewish identity. Speech and conduct that would violate the [nondiscrimination and anti-harassment policy] if targeting Jewish or Israeli people can also violate the NDAH [non-discrimination, anti-harassment policy] if directed toward Zionists,” the university said in its guidelines.
Critics have called NYU’s actions an attempt to keep people from talking about the Gaza war by misconstruing legitimate criticism as antisemitism.
Israel is suspected to have killed upwards of 61,000 Palestinian civilians in the Gaza War, with more than 17,000 being children, according to casualty estimates by the Gaza Health Ministry.
LGBTQ+ activists and celebrities have become increasingly outspoken towards Israel’s alleged war crimes throughout the war. During a Human Rights Campaign event, comedienne Hannah Einbinder commemorated a portion of her speech to condemning the Israeli Defense Force (IDF).
Many prominent Jewish figures have also called out Israel’s role in the conflict. This week, Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen was recently arrested for interrupting a Senate hearing to protest Israel’s role in the war.
Cohen, along with his business partner Jerry Greenfield, who is also Jewish, wrote in a 2021 opinion article for The New York Times, “As Jewish supporters of the State of Israel, we fundamentally reject the notion that it is antisemitic to question the policies of the State of Israel.”
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