Antisemitic incident at UVA is a warning amid escalating campus antisemitism

A University of Virginia student waited inside his Jewish housemate’s room with a firearm on Oct. 30. Robert Cabell Romer then threatened his housemate with the weapon when he returned to their off-campus home. As the Daily Progress reported, this was the culmination of multiple incidents of antisemitic hate the 20-year-old leveled against his target.

Weeks earlier, the targeted housemate planned a party that Romer and other housemates opposed. Romer began sharing antisemitic memes in a group chat involving the target, who “requested that [Romer] stop,” according to the criminal complaint he filed on Oct. 30. The target also alleged in his complaint that “multiple times,” Romer “attempted to fight [him].”