University of Georgia (UGA) President Jere Morehead sent out a letter to community members on Nov. 21 denouncing two incidents where swastikas appeared on campus over the past couple of months, the Red and Black student newspaper reports.
The first incident occurred on Oct. 6, when a swastika and the words “All Heil!” were scrawled on a whiteboard outside of Jewish student Ariana Dinberg’s dorm room, according to Grady Newsource, which is another student publication. On Nov. 19, a swastika was drawn on a different Jewish student’s door as well as several other doors in the building.
Morehead said that he was “appalled by such offensive and outrageous displays of hate. Let me be clear: this type of behavior has no place on our campus.”
UGA Hillel Director Roey Shoshan told the Red and Black, “We’re worried that these instances are not going to stop. What Hillel has been trying to do, throughout the process, is to support the students… and work with UGA to really solve this and educate people.”
Jewish student Max Harris told Grady Newsource that because the current crop of students is two generations after Holocaust survivors, “we’re only one step away from discrimination at its worst form. So anything like this happening is very jarring.”
Anti-Defamation League Southeast Associate Regional Director David Hoffman said in a statement to the Journal, “Displays of swastika graffiti have been used on universities across the country to intimidate and instill fear in students and the broader community. We commend the strong and comprehensive responses to this incident from both student and faculty leadership at the University of Georgia, and are engaging in conversations with various stakeholders to support their efforts to remove hate from their campus.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center tweeted, “Cancerous #antiSemitism continues to spread across America’s campuses.”
Cancerous #antiSemitism continues to spread across America’s campuses – need strong response from Leadership of @universityofga https://t.co/jwhU078SUz
— SimonWiesenthalCntr (@simonwiesenthal) November 22, 2019
