Five months after a student sent antisemitic messages, entered a Jewish student’s room, and brandished a gun, UVA leadership has yet to denounce or acknowledge the hate crime.

by James A. Bacon

Two-and-a-half years after the University of Virginia failed to prevent the shooting homicide of three football players, a student who entered a Jewish student’s room and brandished a gun has been readmitted to the University after a brief suspension.

“Although UVA initially suspended the perpetrator, the case was handed over to a student-run judiciary committee—an entity that has issued expulsions for far lesser offenses,” states a letter circulated by a group of Jewish parents identifying themselves as The Lions of Zion.

“Shockingly, the committee overturned the suspension and assigned community service instead,” states the letter, which is addressed to University leadership. “To date, the university has not publicly acknowledged the incidents and has been evasive in providing information about the disciplinary status of the perpetrator and a second roommate who purchased the handgun.”

The Lions of Zion called for UVA leadership to publicly condemn the incident, expel the students involved, ensure the safety of the target (who wishes to remain anonymous), and “commit to protecting all students from hate and violence.”

The University of Virginia is one of 60 institutions warned by the U.S. Office for Civil Rights that they might be subject to enforcement actions if they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus.

Complaints of antisemitism soared at UVA following the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks on Israel, as protesters chanted, “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea,” and dozens of UVA professors signed a letter in support of the Gaza Palestinians. While pro-Palestinian students felt free to proclaim their views openly, Jewish kids were silent or expressed their views anonymously. While Muslim students felt free to wear keffiyehs, Jewish students hid marks of their ethnic identity such as kippahs and stars of David. Despite the lack of evidence of anti-Muslim animus, President Jim Ryan formed a “religious diversity task force” to study bias against Jews and Muslims alike. Aside from documenting the spike in anti-Jewish incidents, the committee in its report could not bring itself to admit that UVA had an antisemitism problem.

It is unclear, however, if the gun-brandishing threat decried by the Lions of Zion was motivated by the Hamas-Israel conflict or stemmed from other sources of bias. The student who brandished the gun was White; the one who purchased it was of Pakistani origin or ancestry.

The UVA dean on call responded to the November 2024 incident by reporting 20-year-old Robert Romer to the Charlottesville police and arranging alternate housing for the Jewish student.

What infuriated some members of UVA’s Jewish community is that UVA then turned Romer’s case over to the University Student Committee, which proceeded to give him a slap on the wrist. Now he is free to roam the Grounds where the Jewish student he threatened could encounter him at any time.

“The failure [to expel] comes just two and a half years after a tragic shooting death of three UVA students by another UVA student and just days after a fatal shooting at Florida State University and a student shooting at another Virginia university,” states the Lions of Zion letter. “UVA’s silence on this hate crime is a betrayal of its Jewish students and the broader student body.”

In the 2022 mass shooting incident referred to in the letter, Christopher Darnell Jones killed three of his classmates and wounded two. UVA was faulted for having ignored numerous warning signs, including a hazing incident, law-enforcement encounters over illegal gun possession, and a report that Jones was stashing guns and ammunition in his dormitory room in violation of University policy. Authorities handed the case to the student judiciary, but Jones committed the murders before any action could be taken. Details of exactly what went awry remain obscure, as the taxpayer-funded report has been heavily redacted.

President Jim Ryan has claimed that state law prohibited University police from searching the room, and he has sought legislative changes to rectify the restriction.

The incident involving Romer and the Jewish student occurred in a former fraternity house on Rugby Road off Grounds. The Jewish student approached members of a nearby sorority about holding a mixer, but the invitation sparked a disagreement with his roommates. As the argument escalated, Romer sent antisemitic messages and memes on a group chat with roommates, culminating with this: “At approximately 12:30 (given estimate) I am going to attempt to free Palestine. Anyone is welcome to join in on the beating.”

As described in the Lions of Zion letter:

The target of these threats—a Jewish student—returned home to a hostile environment. The perpetrators attempted to lure him into a basement room they referred to as the “hell room.” When he refused and went to his bedroom, they followed him and one of the perpetrators wedged himself between the door and the doorframe, preventing the Jewish student from closing the door and securing his safety.

One week later, the Jewish student found that same perpetrator waiting for him in the Jewish student’s bedroom, holding a gun. The Jewish student called the police and the armed student was arrested.

In an article published in The Daily Progress shortly after the incident, Romer’s father, Tom Romer, denied the charges against his son. “A thorough review of the events will show that there was no hate, no assault and no brandishing. Robert looks forward to proving his innocence and sharing the full story in court and the media thereafter.”

No such explanation has been shared yet in a public forum.

The father of the Jewish student, requesting anonymity to avoid revealing his son’s identity and subjecting him to harassment, told Bacon’s Rebellion of a series of frustrating encounters with the UVA bureaucracy. In particular, getting information about the Student Judiciary proceedings against Romer was a particular ordeal. The Student Affairs staff member who oversaw the proceedings refused to reveal the disciplinary action, leaving the Jewish student in the dark. Only through a credible third party did he learn that Romer had been required to engage in community service and was allowed to return to Grounds.

In the past the University has acted quickly and forcefully to publicly denounce acts of bigotry and discrimination — even before bigotry and discrimination were proven. For instance, when an unidentified White man hung a noose around the neck of the Homer statue in 2022, President Ryan proclaimed the action a racially motivated act of intimidation, enlisted the FBI to hunt down the perpetrator, and broadcast an announcement to the University community. It turned out that the individual arrested for the act was protesting pedophilia.

By contrast, says the Jewish student’s father, University leadership has remained steadfastly silent about an incident in which a student propagated antisemitic language and memes, and then intimidated a Jewish student with a gun — even as antisemitic violence on college campuses has become a national issue.

States the Lions of Zion letter: “This lack of transparency, accountability, and public acknowledgment is unacceptable.”