A swastika was found attached to a Jewish student’s door in a Tufts University dormitory on the evening of Sept. 15.
Tufts University President Tony Monaco said in a Sept. 17 statement, “I condemn this cowardly act of hatred and ignorance. It is a direct attack on our Jewish community and an affront to our values as an institution.”
He added that university police are investigating the matter and encouraged community members to attend Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt’s anti-Semitism lecture later that day.
It is not publicly known which specific dorm the swastika was found in.
Tufts Hillel Director on Initiative for Innovative Community Building Rabbi Jordan Braunig told the student newspaper Tufts Daily, “Anti-Semitism is strange in the way that … you can get gas-lit enough times where you’re made to question your experience enough that you start to do that on your own. My feeling in hearing about this particular event was just a real deep sense of sadness that the type of vitriol and hatred that’s symbolized in the swastika would have found its way onto this campus.”
Tufts Friends of Israel said in a Sept. 17 statement that they were “incredibly dismayed and hurt” about the swastika and called it “an act of targeted discrimination” against an “openly Jewish” student.
“This is not an isolated event, but yet another incident attacking the Jewish community at Tufts,” the statement read. “This is part of a pattern of anti-Semitism and a continued environment of hostility towards Jewish students that has persisted for years.”
They urged “Monaco and the Tufts administration to outline concrete steps they are going to take to protect Jewish students and combat anti-Semitism.”
https://www.facebook.com/TuftsFOI/photos/a.1882425682012775/2445137942408210/?type=3&theater
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted, “Disturbing that a @TuftsUniversity student found a swastika on their door. #AntiSemitic attacks are appalling on any campus, but it hits close to home to see such blatant bigotry at my alma mater.”
Disturbing that a @TuftsUniversity student found a swastika on their door. #AntiSemitic attacks are appalling on any campus, but it hits close to home to see such blatant bigotry at my alma mater. If you encounter this type of #hate, our resource can help: https://t.co/DF8glK1l4o https://t.co/Zqqoemqg2u
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) September 18, 2019
