New Orleans is known as a dangerous city for Jews, with a flourishing, radical Free Palestine terror network, one which the Zionist community has long warned authorities about. In fact, on the day before the Bourbon Street attack which killed 14 people and wounded dozens, a Betar Zionist leader had his life threatened only blocks from the scene of the attack with death symbols and more near his home. Like on many other occasions, FBI and law enforcement complaints were filed.
In New Orleans, Tulane University and local officials have complicity in taking funding and taking sides with the crowd that openly calls for jihad and intifada. They call for it, they want it and they bring it. Terror attacks come from those who support anti-West, anti-Jewish ideology.
Lets examine New Orleans, where a Zionist Betar activist, Jakob Schanzer, a Jewish PhD student at Tulane University who is working on his doctorate in Chemical Engineering has on a daily basis since October 7, 2023 cleaned anti-Semitic graffiti mere blocks from where the bombing occurred. This graffiti, which until today remains all over the city calls for jihad, intifada, to free Palestine and death to Zionists.
Groups go out in New Orleans to clean up hate as the ADL and Jewish Federation urge locals not to “escalate” by going to the streets. Meanwhile, Tulane University demands students and staff stop cleaning off-campus graffiti and those who do are relentlessly harassed by Tulane’s Office of Student Conduct.
In December, Tulane’s pro-Hamas Palestinian Arab group hosted a library encampment where they disrupted everything in sight and which some Jewish students also attended. As jihadis sat with pro-Hamas flags and faces covered while harassing many people, Jewish students who supposedly challenge jihadis are disciplined by the school. They receive warning letters that are aggressive and intended to intimidate.
In Jakob’s case, a conduct office investigator told him he wasn’t allowed to “destroy public art” and lectured him about using spray paint instead of paint rollers—even after he showed photos of hateful messages calling for violence against Jews and Zionists. Rather than removing hate themselves, Tulane weaponizes the conduct process against the many Jewish students who fight back.
Meanwhile, Qatar which has for decades given money and protection to the leaders of terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Hamas, funds Tulane University and other projects in the city. The Free Palestine movement, funded by Qatar, is in New Orleans and creates extremism and threatening the security of the United States – globally and locally.
As a press release from Qatar stated, “the Qatar Katrina Fund” was established and earlier in 2024, New Orleans Mayor Cantrell visited Qatar which “…has donated $100 million to infrastructure in New Orleans through the Qatar Katrina Fund, including at least $5 million to the Tulane University's Community Health Center. “ As a Tulane press release states, they thank “...the country's visiting Emir for millions of dollars in Tulane scholarships and healthcare assistance..”
Tulane’s President presented Qatar’s ruler with “with a proclamation from the Board of Tulane and the President's Medal, the highest honor the university president bestows.” They also officially dedicated the LBC ballroom as the Qatar Ballroom. Like universities worldwide, Tulane, one of the most prominent institutions in the United States for Jews has accepted millions from Qatar. Combine that "follow the money" example with political correctness and the FBI’s concern for Islamaphobia and there’s reason for deep, deep concern.
Local mosques are also a major problem. At a November 17, 2023 youth committee program in the Islamic Center of Greater Houston (ICHG) – Masjid Bilal, where reportedly New Orleans attack Shamsud Din Jabbar was a member, Imam Eiad Soudan discussed the history of Palestine. He said that the Jews, whom he referred to as the “Israelites,” seek to take control of the economy wherever they go, and this is the reason that Hitler, whom he said had a “nice moustache,” killed them. He added Hitler had not only killed Jews, but also thousands of Muslims. Soudan also said that Europeans support Israelis today because they fear the Jews will return to their countries. He added a verse from the Quran according to which the Israelites seek to spread corruption.
At Tulane University, and at cities and campuses throughout the world, there is a global problem of Islamist-motivated terror which is well-funded and influential. Protestors have long called for jihad and intifada and now it has led to terrorism in New Orleans and can serve as a wake-up call.
The chickens have come home to roost in New Orleans. Seeds have been planted for many years and the United States and rest of the world can wake up now before its too late. There is a lot of work to be done and a lot of changes to be made.
Ronn Torossian is an American-Israeli entrepreneur and philanthropist.