Students respond to hate incidents

The Helen G. Simon Hillel Center, in cooperation with Union Board and the Episcopal Campus Ministry, has organized Hate to Harmony from today until Thursday in response to recent and ongoing hate-based incidents on campus.

On Oct. 8, students reported swastikas drawn on the dry erase boards of Jewish students living in Briscoe Quad.

Two days earlier, a lesbian student reported a death threat was written on her dry erase board in Foster Quad.

Hillel program director Ilana Nadel said Hate to Harmony aims to promote action against hate, including how to identify and combat it.

“The importances of these events are for students to recognize what hate looks like, that it does occur everywhere and to learn how to prevent it,” Nadel said. “IU, CARLA, everyone here has done a lot of great work, but we don’t do a lot of action.”

Hillel engagement director Lance daSilva said he worked with students to create Holocaust Through the Eyes of Students, which will be presented at 7 p.m.  today in the Indiana Memorial Union Dunn Meadow Cafe.

“These students have seen some of the concentration and death camps that existed during the Holocaust,” daSilva said. “It says a lot for students to be teaching their peers.”

A panel discussion about the relevance of the Holocaust will immediately
follow.

Holocaust survivor and IU alumnus Conrad Weiner will participate, as well as Jewish Studies Professor Alvin Rosenfeld and Rabbi Ron Klotz.

“Being a Holocaust survivor, we thought (Weiner) was very interesting and intriguing,” said George Thomas, director of Union Board lectures. “It’s still a hot-button issue because we still have acts of vandalism and hate toward the Jewish community at IU,”
Weiner will also speak about his experiences in Romanian concentration camps 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Whittenberger Auditorium.

His presentation coincides with the anniversary of Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, when Nazis destroyed Jewish towns and synagogues during what is now considered the beginning of the Holocaust.

Hillel Assistant Director Leah Aft said Weiner’s presence is significant because there are few Holocaust survivors left.

“He’s going to talk about everything he remembers and recalls from that point,” Aft said. “A lot of students will have a chance to meet with him (on) a one-on-one basis through meals, being here at Hillel and asking him questions.”

Hate to Harmony will conclude with a “How to Respond” to hate program at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the Dunn Meadow Cafe.

Nadel said hate is a reoccurring theme in history that students need to react to.

“It goes back to that phrase, ‘Nothing’s going to change unless you change it,’” Nadel said. “Students need to realize if it’s going to change, it starts with them.”