3 additional anti-Semitic incidents spark anger in community

With Hanukkah beginning this week, the limestone rock used to vandalize the Chabad House Jewish Student Center will be one piece of the foundation of the center’s new 12-foot menorah.

The rock was found by members of the center on Nov. 23 and was the first of five incidents of anti-Semitic vandalism on campus reported in the past week.

”The very rock that was thrown at us to intimidate, we will use to illuminate,” Rabbi Yehoshua Chincholker from Chabad said.

On Tuesday, a second limestone rock was thrown through the window of an apartment above Chabad, nearly hitting resident and student Maggie Williams as she worked on a paper at about 7 a.m. The rock, was bigger than the palm of her hand and put a hole in her drywall, she said.

Then, at about 7:50 a.m. a rock was thrown at the staff directory glass display case for the Robert A. and Sandra B. Borns Jewish Studies Program in Goodbody Hall.

Additional vandalism included a report to the IU Police Department on Monday that eight Hebrew texts were found urinated on in eight different restroom toilets of the Herman B Wells Library. A rock thrown through a back kitchen window of the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center was found on Nov. 27.

In the six years he has been with the Office of Diversity Education, Director Eric Love said he has not seen anything similar to the multiple acts of hate that occurred in the past week.

The only comparable vandalism was in October 2007, when a beer bottle was thrown through one of the windows of Chabad. A few weeks later, the word “Jewish” was stripped from the building.

Love said he was appalled and mortified when he heard the news. He called for students to stand together against this kind of hate and support for the Jewish community.

“This could happen in the black community, the gay community or the Latino community,” Love said, adding that acts of hate have happened in all these communities.

IU and Bloomington police are investigating these incidents and have increased police, both in uniform and pedestrian clothes, around the vandalized areas.

IUPD are looking for a suspect described as a white male, 5 feet 8 inches, with grayish blond hair and a gray beard between the ages of 40 to 50 years old for the incident at Goodbody Hall, according to an IUPD press release. The man, reportedly wearing a yellow jacket over a hooded sweatshirt and off-white pants, was last seen near Ballantine Hall.

“It’s kind of disgusting that people or someone is organizing to make these incidents happen,” Alex Groysman, president of the Chabad, said. “It’s unfortunate that these things are happening on our campus, especially with everything the Jewish centers do in the community.”

Although no students have approached his office, Dean of Students Pete Goldsmith said he and his office are reaching out to the Jewish community and offering their support.

“It’s something that shouldn’t happen in the University community,” Goldsmith said. “It’s a place of tolerance.”

Bloomington has a history of speaking out against intolerance and anti-Semitism, and these actions are not acceptable, Rabbi Sue Laikin Silberberg of Hillel said.

“We’re doing everything we can, working with the police and University, to find who is responsible,” she said. “We are grateful for the support the University and community is giving the Hillel and the Jewish community here.”

Love said he will meet with student leaders to organize a response in support of the Jewish community.

IUPD has notified the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice, which they do whenever an act appears to be motivated by hatred for a particular religion. The Jewish Studies Program, Hillel and Chabad are also working together to keep students and members of the community vigilant without panicking.

Paul Eisenberg, president of the Congregation Beth Shalom, said the congregation’s building has not been vandalized, but since it is a possibility, he has called for an increase in surveillance.

“I’m having some of our congregants drive by and check on the building during the night time,” Eisenberg said.

Goldsmith said the University will be reaching out to the community to help identify the suspect and added that the University is doing what it can to stop attacks and ones similar to them.

“The books that were chosen were sacred books,” Jeffrey Veidlinger, Jewish Studies Program director said. “On the one hand, they’re just paper and glass, but on the other hand, they’re sacred paper and glass that symbolize our religion.”

Jake New, Alex Benson, Kevin Wang and Charlie Scudder contributed to this article.