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Syracuse University Remembrance Scholars will no longer represent Eric and Jason Coker as part of Remembrance Week following the discovery of antisemitic material in archival letters from the twins in October 2022.

In previous years, each SU Remembrance Scholar would be dedicated to representing a victim of the Pan Am Flight 103 terrorist attack connected to SU. Moving forward, all but two of the scholars will represent an SU-connected victim. The two remaining scholars will represent the flight crew and all other passengers onboard the flight, respectively, an SU spokesperson confirmed to The Daily Orange.

This year, the scholars’ pairings to the victims were random, the spokesperson said.

“At the request of the Coker family and in agreement with the University, the Coker twins will no longer be represented by a scholar,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement to The D.O.

Last October, a now-former Remembrance Scholar discovered correspondences in holiday cards between the Coker brothers and their family that contained antisemitic language and a swastika.

Since then, SU has removed all materials related to the Coker brothers from its Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster physical and digital archives at the Coker family’s request. Last year, the twins’ names were still included in Remembrance Week events.

SU began the Remembrance Scholarship in 1989, a year after the Pan Am bombing. The terrorist attack killed 35 SU students returning from study abroad and over 200 others over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988. The scholarship includes a cohort of 35 SU students, along with 2 scholars from Lockerbie who study at SU for the academic year.

This year’s Remembrance Week will start on Sunday, with events held from Oct. 15 to Oct. 21.

Published on October 8, 2023 at 10:41 pm

Contact Stephanie: spwright@syr.edu