A student, identified in media reports as Kaylee Mahony, tells students affiliated with the Students Supporting Israel chapter at University of Miami that the Talmud describes Jews eating with non-Jews as “like eating with an animal,” and pointing at the Jewish students, she appears to inform others that “these people” believe that “if you’re not a Jew, you’re an animal.”
That’s according to video footage shared with JNS of the incident, in which it appeared that the student tells the Jewish peers tabling for the pro-Israel group that Jesus wasn’t Jewish, because modern Judaism began 100 years after Jesus. “Your religion is founded on denying Christ,” she seems to say.
The private university stated on Wednesday that it is “aware of the exchange that occurred between students on Tuesday afternoon.”
“We strongly support our students’ rights to freedom of expression. However, we understand that lines can be crossed,” the school said, without explaining what the exchange entailed. “As such, the university has proactive policies in place to ensure the safety and well-being of all students.”
“The incident that occurred is being investigated thoroughly,” it added. “The university remains committed to maintaining a campus environment where every student feels safe, welcomed and supported.” (JNS sought comment from the school.)
In the video footage that JNS viewed, a blonde woman—identified in the Miami Hurricane, a student paper, as a member of the school’s committee on student organizations—appears to whisk the student away from the table.
Ella Leon, a freshman at the university, told JNS that the pro-Israel group was tabling at a club fair that day, and she was one of three students at the Students Supporting Israel table. (JNS sought comment from the group. The communications director for the chapter, Leon, told JNS she was speaking personally.)
According to Leon, Mahony shouted “free Palestine” at the students seated at the table and was screaming about “how many people in Gaza have been killed by your forces.”
When the pro-Israel students asked her to lower her voice, Mahony began “screaming that rabbis eat babies’ genitals” and shouted to the nearby crowd that “these people are disgusting,” Leon told JNS.
Leon told the Hurricane that Mahony also said that “rabbis eat babies, that we shouldn’t be allowed on campus, and that we are dirty.”
JNS viewed a video, which appeared to be from Mahony’s TikTok account, which is no longer live, and in which Mahony seemed to say that she never made the “dirty” comment or said that Jews shouldn’t be permitted on campus.
She also appeared to say that her remarks about rabbis related to how “rabbis suck the blood” off of baby boys’ genitals after circumcision. (There is a ritual, which some circumcisers perform, that involves using suction to move blood away from the wound, but not to consume it.)
In the video, Mahony seems to confirm that she said “Free Palestine” to the Jewish students at the table. She appears to allege that the students yelled at her, so she came back and asked, among other questions, if they follow the Talmud. She appears to claim that when they said that they do, she asked about it, stating that “eating with a non-Jew is like eating with a dog.”
Mahony seemed to further allege that the Jewish students called her antisemitic and were “rage-baiting” her. Leon told JNS that she stands by her account of the event.
