Jewish community finds more anti-Semitic incidents during weekend

More anti-Semitic incidents occurred during the weekend as Zeta Beta Tau’s mailbox was stolen, swastikas were found on a dry erase board in McNutt Quad and the president of Congregation Beth Shalom received a suspicious jar of jam on his porch.

Since Nov. 23, eight acts of vandalism targeted at the Bloomington Jewish community have been reported to Bloomington and IU police.

Zeta Beta Tau reported their mailbox stolen Thursday after it had been “torn off its hinges,” fraternity president Sam Chortek said. Members of the fraternity heard people outside at 3 a.m. Thursday morning. After hearing a loud crash, they went outside to investigate and saw people running away.

Chortek said he’s not sure if it’s directly related or if it’s a copycat, but the Jewish fraternity could have been targeted in light of the recent incidents.

“It’s just a time when we’ve got to watch our backs,” Jordan Silver, vice president of Zeta Beta Tau, said.

On Dec. 3, IUPD received a report that swastikas had been drawn on a dry-erase board outside a dorm room in McNutt, according to an IU news release.

IU Chief of Police Keith Cash said there were no indications there was an intruder on the floor. The incident appeared to be “an insensitive and hateful prank and not a direct physical threat,” Cash said in the release.

In the most recent incident, Paul Eisenberg, president of Congregation Beth Shalom, called police after his son saw an unknown man deliver a jar of jam to their porch around 5 p.m. Saturday.

His son described the man as wearing a white surgical mask or a false white beard to obscure his identity, Eisenberg said. The man placed the jar topped with a red Christmas bow on the porch without knocking or ringing the bell and then drove away in a white station wagon.

Eisenberg said he didn’t know if it was the same person police are searching for after a previous incident, but after he heard his son’s description, he called the police.

The Bloomington Police Department responded and smelled the contents of the jar: raspberry jam.

“Maybe it’s just jam. Maybe it’s raspberry jam and urine. Maybe it’s raspberry jam and arsenic,” Eisenberg speculated.

Police are planning on running a chemical analysis of the jar’s contents on Monday, and Eisenberg hopes they will also take fingerprints then.

“We were disappointed,” Eisenberg’s wife said. “They just opened the jar and gave it back.”

None of these incidents have been directly linked to the previous acts of vandalism.

First, a limestone rock was thrown through a back window into the main prayer room of the Chabad House Jewish Student Center on Nov. 23. Similarly, a rock was found thrown through a back kitchen window of the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center on Nov. 27.

On Nov. 29, eight Hebrew texts were taken from the research collection at the Herman B Wells Library, tossed into toilets and urinated on in eight bathrooms.

The next day, Nov. 30, a second limestone rock was thrown through a window of the apartment above the Chabad House at 7 a.m., nearly hitting student resident Maggie Williams. She and the rest of her roommates are not even Jewish, she said.

At 7:50 a.m., a second rock shattered a glass case at the Robert A. and Sandra B. Borns Jewish Studies Program office in Goodbody Hall.

A witness to the incident chased the man wearing a yellow jacket over a hooded sweatshirt near Ballantine Hall, where he was last seen.

The suspect is described as a white male, 5 feet 8 inches with grayish blond hair and a gray beard, according to an IUPD news release. The man is between the ages of 40 to 50 years old.