January 25, 2021
Via Email: (provost@jhu.edu)
Sunil Kumar, Ph.D.
Provos and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
The Johns Hopkins University
3400 North Charles Street, 265 Garland Hall
Baltimore, Maryland 21218
Dear Senior Vice President and Provost Kumar,
We write on behalf of the StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department and the StandWithUs Center for Combating Antisemitism, divisions of StandWithUs, an international, non-profit Israel education organization, to follow up on our previous correspondence regarding Rasha Anayah, a graduate researcher and teaching assistant who allegedly posted a series of statements on her Twitter account indicating an intent to discriminate against her students on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity and national origin. We write to you today to provide new information for your ongoing investigation.
First, a student at Johns Hopkins notified us anonymously that Anayah has returned full time to her graduate lab work. We realize that a return to her graduate student duties does not preclude the continuation of your inquiry. However, we thought it curious that, in an investigation involving such egregious and flagrantly discriminatory posts by a member of Johns Hopkins’ faculty, the person being investigated is already back at work.
Furthermore, we would like to bring to your attention a screenshot of a Facebook statement Anayah allegedly posted at the start of her graduate studies at Johns Hopkins in 2018. It was sent to us by a concerned Jewish member of the Johns Hopkins community who wishes to remain anonymous. In this post, Anayah acknowledges that she is “one month into grad school” and states that “zionism in chemistry, and especially physical chemistry, is ubiquitous and totally unchallenged. pray that allah swt gives me the patience to deal with this shit. fuck israel.” See Exhibit A.
This screenshot, shortly after Anayah started her graduate program at Johns Hopkins University suggests that Anayah’s bias against Jews and Israelis go back much further than her recently discovered December 2020 Twitter posts.
In light of this new evidence, we ask that you open your investigation beyond a mere review of Anayah’s grading of the past semester, and instead conduct a thorough inquiry into Anayah for bias and discrimination in violation of school policy and professional conduct expected of an employee of the university.
We note that some of your Jewish and Zionist students are afraid to identify themselves to you because they fear for their safety, well-being and future career prospects if Anayah and her supporters at the university should find out that they have called attention to her antisemitism. This signals to us a far-reaching problem and the need for a deeper investigation into this matter.
Thank you for your continued time and attention to this important investigation. We are happy to work with your administration in any way that you feel would be helpful. We look forward to your response by Friday, February 12, 2021.
Sincerely,
Roz Rothstein
CEO & Co-Founder
StandWithUs
Yael Lerman
Director
StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department
Carly Gammill
Director
StandWithUs Center for Combating Antisemitism
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