Vice President of NYU Hillel Says ‘Jewish Students Hesitant’ to Share Viewpoints After Terror Threat at NY Jewish Center

Pakistani citizen residing in Canada, Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, was arrested near the U.S.-Canadian border, following a complaint filed in the Southern District of New York. He is charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO).  According to the complaint, Khan began to express his support for ISIS online around November 2023, when he was found to be speaking about his intentions to carry out attacks at Jewish centers in the United States. 

“During our investigation, we discovered Khan used encrypted messaging apps in planning a mass shooting attack at a Jewish site in New York City,” said Rob Kissane, the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force special agent in charge. 

Khan began posting on social media and communicating on an encrypted messaging application demonstrating his support for ISIS and where, among other things, he distributed ISIS propaganda, including videos and literature. There, Khan began communicating with two undercover law enforcement officers and confirmed that he had been planning to carry out an attack in a U.S. city. He had been actively attempting to create “a real offline cell” of ISIS supporters to carry out a “coordinated assault” using AR-style rifles to “target Israeli Jewish Chabads,” according to the aforementioned complaint. Khan would repeatedly instruct the undercover officers to acquire weapons to carry out the attacks, as well as identify specific locations where the attacks would take place. 

“October 7 and October 11 are the best days for targeting the Jews [because] October 7 they will surely have some protests and October 11 is Yom Kippur,” Khan said. 

He told the undercover agents that he planned to carry out the attack on or around October 7, 2024, which Khan recognized as the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attack in Israel by Hamas, a day which many predict will see large protests and attacks. 

October 7, 2023, was the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Hamas entered Israel, taking over 200 hostages into Gaza and murdering 1,200 people including both Israelis and Americans. Over 100 hostages remain in captivity. 

According to Khan, “New York is perfect to target Jews” because it has the “largest Jewish population In America” and therefore, “even if we don't attack a[n] event[,] we could rack up easily a lot of Jews.” He also noted that “if we succeed with our plan this would be the largest attack on US soil since 9/11,” according to the complaint.  

Around September 4, 2024, Khan attempted to reach the U.S.-Canadian border. He used three separate cars to travel across Canada before he was stopped by law enforcement near Ormstown, Quebec (approximately 12 miles from the border). If convicted, Khan faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

While this failed terror attempt involves a direct threat to a Jewish institution and Jewish people, it also reflects a larger pattern of antisemitic extremism that has manifested itself around the world, including on many college campuses like NYU. 

Anti-Israel protestor contrasts Israel with white supremacy outside NYU's Bobst Library.

Such antisemitism appears in various forms, from overt acts of hate to more subtle forms of discrimination and bias. 

The Vice President of NYU Hillel, who asked that The NYU Review not use his full name said that Jewish students seem to be comfortable expressing their Judaism and views with their peers, “when it comes to their grades and academics, [Jewish students] have been a lot more hesitant” to share their perspectives out of fear of receiving a bad grade. 

It is evident that the surge in antisemitic incidents nationwide has fueled a climate of angst that directly threatens Jewish students at universities like NYU.

The Vice President also added that despite this intimidation, “the Jewish community will continue to come together and be proud of who we are.”