Antisemitic graffiti was discovered on the day of commencement at Northwestern University. Photo: Twitter, Daily Northwestern.

Antisemitic graffiti was discovered on the day of commencement at Northwestern University. Photo: Twitter, Daily Northwestern.

In an interview with The Algemeiner, Northwestern University Rabbi Dov Klein on Thursday denounced expressions of anger toward Jews on campus after this year’s third antisemitic attack took place at school.

Staff at Ryan Field, where the university held its commencement ceremony, found graffiti that included swastikas and another Nazi symbol written on the windows of the stadium’s North Tower before the ceremony began on June 19.

The vandalism marked the second antisemitic incident at the university this month. The last incident happened two weeks ago when anti-Jewish graffiti was found spray-painted at a construction site on campus.

The antisemitic graffiti discovered at commencement was “obviously a strong statement of hate against the Jewish community” and “a statement of anger,” said Rabbi Klein, of the Chabad on campus. “Unfortunately, people have a lot of anger toward the Jewish people and they come up with a little bit of a window of openings to express it.”

“I’m going to assume that the person is angry. Angry at the Jewish community. Angry at Israel,” Rabbi Klein continued. “It doesn’t seem to be a dumb act and what better way to express that anger than at graduation…These windows open up and until somebody is found or until some strong actions are taken, that window will remain open.”

It is unusual to have swastika graffiti attacks happening one after another at the university, according to Rabbi Klein. He said the police department is “very concerned” about it what is happening on university grounds, and that they are still unsure of one person or a group is behind all the incidents.

Rabbi Klein wondered why the perpetrator has directed so much apparent anger against Jews.

“For me, I want to know why are you doing this, what’s bothering you, where’s the anger coming from?” he said. “I wold explain to the person that this is unacceptable behavior.”

“I tell [the perpetrator] that I would like to understand why they’re doing it, I would like to explain [to them] what the symbols mean and represent,” he continued. “We wanna know if they were just being goofy or making a statement of some sort and what that statement is and how we can address it — the person [and] the anger.”

Northwestern’s student government in February passed a resolution to boycott Israel, which Rabbi Klein believes may be connected to the string of antisemitic incidents taking place. He refused to admit a direct correlation between BDS and the attacks but said that typically, a heated debate about BDS on campus “opens up the Pandora’s box.”

“A week or two after it passed you see graffiti and stuff go up,” he said. “I’m not saying it’s directly related to BDS but, I mean, after several incidents you have to think, is there a group of people who express tremendous anger during this BDS movement or debate that took place and their anger was against Israel or against …read more

Source:: The Algemeiner

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here