A tale of two professors: 'Black Radical' calls Hamas killings 'exhilarating', the other stands up for Jewish lives

Cornell University Professor Russell Rickford told a crowd recently that he “was exhilarated” to watch Hamas kill, rape, and abduct Israeli civilians. 

”It was energizing. And if it weren’t exhilarating by this challenge to the monopoly of violence - by this shifting of the balance of power - then they would not be human. I was exhilarated,” Rickford said according to video footage contained by Libs of TikTok. 

“I was exhilarated!” Professor Russell Rickford of @Cornell calls Hamas terrorist attacks “exhilarating” and “energizing” pic.twitter.com/kv2CbZuHEY

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) October 16, 2023

Rickford “specializes” in the “Black Radical Tradition,” according to his university biography. 

By contrast, University of California Berkeley law professor Steven Davidoff Solomon is telling employers not to hire his anti-Semitic students. 

In an Oct. 15 op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Solomon tells law firms, “[I]f you don’t want to hire people who advocate hate and practice discrimination, don’t hire some of my students.” 

Solomon writes: 

The student conduct at Berkeley is part of the broader attitude against Jews on university campuses that made last week’s massacre possible. It is shameful and has been tolerated for too long.

Solomon’s research focus is corporate law and the “intersection of law and finance.” 

His op-ed notes that anti-Semitic activism at Berkeley’s law school emanates from “ Middle Eastern and North African Law Students Association, the Queer Caucus and the Women of Berkeley Law.”