(JTA) — Swastikas and racist slurs were scrawled in bathrooms and in a classroom at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan.
The graffiti included two anti-Semitic messages, one racist slur and an anti-gay message. The college’s vice president, Lynette Cook-Francis, met with representatives of the groups that were targeted in the hate messages, according to a letter written to the campus community by John Jay’s president, Jeremy Travis.
“We should all be concerned and offended by these incidents,” Travis wrote. “We pride ourselves as being a community that celebrates diversity and values differences. We aspire to treat one another with respect and dignity.”
College officials also met with the New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes unit.
John Jay’s Hillel chapter said it was gratified by the administration’s swift removal of the hateful graffiti.
“It might be easy to dismiss this as a minor act of vandalism but given the rise of global anti-Semitism (including on college campuses), we must be vigilant in speaking out against all manifestations of anti-Jewish behavior and symbols,” the Hillel said in a statement.
Correction: An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the nature of the graffiti and the Hillel chapter’s response.
