Cornell History Professor Who felt "Exhilarated" After Hamas Murdered 1400 Jews, on Leave of Absence

Update 10.25.23: "Professor Russell Rickford has requested and received approval to take a leave of absence from the university," a Cornell spokesperson told Fox News Digital. Rickford taught African American history.

Video has emerged on social media of a Cornell university professor approving of Hamas' October 7th murder of 1400 Israelis. "I was exhilarated!" Professor Russell Rickford of @Cornell called Hamas terrorist attacks "exhilarating" and “energizing”.

Social media has experienced a backlash against anti-semitic, anti-Israel statements, especially by people like college professors who should know better. "Ship all these people to Gaza and they'll quickly find out how “exhilarating” and “energizing” the “tolerance” for them is there” tweeted Vox Occuli, on X.com

“Sickening!” tweeted @ChrisCrbn. "Folks like that make it hard to not Dehumanize them. This is what your higher education $ pays for.”

"So many in academia that do this from the safety of the US, can’t wait to tear it down as if they will be isolated from the chaos because of their ‘wokeness’” tweeted Noah Fencebutt.

"He sounds like he’s describing oh… say… recreational paragliding rather than wanton murder of jewish people” tweeted Gero Doc.

Video of Rickford’s speech about Gaza and Hamas, may be seen at https://x.com/SMObserved/status/1716171684112404887?s=20

Cornell University did issue a weak statement on October 16th. It condemns terrorist supports but does not mention Rickford by name. As far as we can tell, he still works for Cornell. "The intentional targeting and killing of innocent civilians is the very definition of terrorism. I am sickened by statements glorifying the evilness of Hamas terrorism. Any members of our community who have made such statements do not speak for Cornell; in fact, they speak in direct opposition to all we stand for at Cornell. There is no justification for or moral equivalent to these violent and abhorrent acts”. https://statements.cornell.edu/2023/20231016-supporting-one-another.cfm