BLACKSBURG, Va. (WDBJ) -“It’s definitely a feeling of just being scared. I wear a star of David but have it tucked under my shirt the past few months,” said Ethan Werner is the president of Hillel at Virginia Tech, the campus’s Jewish community.

While they were surprised at the intensity of Sunday night’s protests, he says hostility toward Jewish students has been going on for months. He says anti-Semitic chants have members of the Jewish community on edge.

“I heard from the river to the sea, which Congress just declared that that is officially hate speech and antisemitic, as it calls for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the area. So it was just a very different vibe yesterday,” said Werner.

He also said they’re not just being targeted with words.

“I know a lot of students who’ve had who’ve been targeted by a lot of anti semitic attacks, swastikas on doors, anti semitic fliers under their doors on the or desks,” said Werner.

Amanda Herring is Hillel’s director. She says it’s unfair to blame Jewish students at Virginia Tech what’s happening in the Middle East as it is far beyond their control.

“Everyone has complicated political views. And so to assume that because someone is Jewish, or because they’re wearing a Star of David, that you can scream at them that they are causing violence in the Middle East is antisemitic, and that’s what needs to end,” said Herring.

Werner and Herring both said they’ve tried to schedule meetings with pro-Palestinian groups on campus to try and get some mutual respect and humanize the situation. However, they say those attempts have fell through. They want a discussion because it is the only way to bring peace on campus.

“If anyone was ever willing to do that with us, we would be more than willing, we’d be beyond grateful to come to that table and have that discussion. Unfortunately, that has not been what a lot of students have been wanting to do. It’s been a lot more aggressive, a lot more.

“Jewish students and Palestinian students could sit together and talk about their shared care and concern for this one small piece of land,” said Herring.

As the semester comes to a close, members of Hillel said they hope the summer will resolve the chaos between the two groups, so they can come together again as Hokies in the fall.

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A new American Legion post with a bar, a conference room, slot machines and an outdoor grill hosted an open house over the weekend.

American Legion Post 13 at 3445 Washington Blvd replaces a previous Legion building with a smaller footprint, which was demolished in 2020. The Virginia Square facility now sits at the foot of 160 units of affordable housing, half of which is set aside for veterans.

“The new Post 139 features a modern meeting and activity room, available for rentals with an 85-person capacity and state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment,” a press release said. “A well-appointed, modern kitchen is adjacent. Members, auxiliary and their guests have access to a street-front post lounge, complete with bar, plush seating, wide-screen televisions and gaming machines.”

Among the post’s most prominent features is a 22-by-15-foot mural displaying three young Legion representatives and several Arlington landmarks, finished last summer.

The full press release about the open house is below.

American Legion Post 139 opens its doors on Saturday, April 27, giving the public a first look inside the unique Virginia Square facility that serves as a welcoming home for the veterans group while providing key affordable housing to the community.

The new Post 139 features a modern meeting and activity room, available for rentals with an 85-person capacity and state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment. A well-appointed, modern kitchen is adjacent. Members, auxiliary and their guests have access to a street-front post lounge, complete with bar, plush seating, wide-screen televisions and gaming machines.

The Legion site, on property owned by the post since the 1930s, occupies 6,000 square feet of the ground floor of the new seven-story building developed by the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing. APAH bought the land in 2016 with an agreement that half of the future 160 Terwilliger Place apartments would be set aside for veterans for the next 75 years. The building’s first residents arrived in August 2022.

The previous Post 139 building, known for its American flag mural and cannon, was built in the 1950s and occupied a much smaller footprint with two floors and a basement. It was demolished in 2020.

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The April 27 open house is free for the public and will offer chances to meet Post 139 members, discuss special resources and partnerships available and view artwork by veterans. Live music. A variety of foods including grill items will be served.

The post, at 3445 Washington Blvd., is a short walk from Virginia Square-GMU Metro station and is also served by several bus routes. There is limited on-site parking; use street spaces or the GMU Van Metre garage.

Spring ball is now in the rearview mirror and West Virginia head coach Neal Brown found out some valuable things about his football team over the course of the 15 practices.

For now, this version of the Mountaineers is similar to the one that surpassed expectations last year in the sense that it’s a hungry football team that wants to compete at every level.

That was evident how the players handled business across the first 14 practices of the spring and it’s a group that likes to practice.

“Been stressing to our coaching staff that we want the best people that love football,” he said.

The winter program benefited his team as well and West Virginia emerged from that bigger and stronger on both of the line of scrimmages. Across the board, the Mountaineers are a team that embraces physicality and that revealed itself throughout the spring as well.

“We tackle. We’ve tackled a bunch. We’re better,” Brown said.

West Virginia also has developed some depth on the offensive and defensive lines, while the linebacker group has as much competition as it has at any point under Brown. The young wide receivers on the roster also have taken steps forward in their second year in a major role which has eased most of the concerns there.

So overall, the program exits the spring in a good spot but there are still some pitfalls ahead. West Virginia must navigate the next few days when it comes to the transfer portal but due to scheduling won’t have to do that for long.

The spring window will remain open until April 30 which puts college programs in a difficult position with players electing to move on this late in the game. Brown is not a fan of the second window but understands where the priority must be when it comes to his team moving forward with spring ball done.

“Most important thing is to continue to hold our roster together and we’ll look to add some pieces potentially in May,” he said.

The Mountaineers have already started with that last part adding Charlotte cornerback transfer Dontez Fagan over the weekend. The senior cornerback spent one year with the 49ers where he played 623 snaps and posted strong coverage numbers with 21 tackles and an interception overall to go along with 5 passes defended.

The Oklahoma native entered the portal this past week and quickly scheduled a visit to campus in order to fill a need in the secondary. He has one year left and that likely isn’t the last addition the program will make in the coming weeks.