(JTA) — Swastikas along with personal slurs and epithets were painted on a fraternity house on the Stanford University campus.
The graffiti was discovered on the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house on Saturday night by fraternity members, the Stanford Daily reported on its website Sunday.
“I am deeply troubled by the act of vandalism, including symbols of hate, that has marred our campus,” Stanford President John Hennessy said in a statement to the student newspaper. “The University will not tolerate hate crimes and this incident will be fully investigated, both by campus police and by the University under our Acts of Intolerance Protocol. This level of incivility has no place at Stanford.”
“I ask everyone in the University community to stand together against intolerance and hate, and to affirm our commitment to a campus community where discourse is civil, where we value differences and where every individual is respected,” Hennessy said.
The incident at the Palo Alto, California, school comes three weeks after accusations by student government candidate Molly Horwitz that she was singled out for her Jewishness during an endorsement interview by the Students of Color Coalition.
The president of the Stanford Israel Association, senior Liana Kadisha, told the campus newspaper that there has been a rise in hostility toward Jewish groups since the Stanford Undergraduate Senate passed a controversial divestment resolution in February. She said that many student groups have refused to co-sponsor events with her group.
Jewish student groups are planning to present a pledge against anti-Semitism response to the swastika attack, Kadisha told the Stanford Daily.
“The display of this loaded symbol of the Holocaust casts a shadow over our university community,” the Stanford Hillel’s executive director, Rabbi Serena Eisenberg, and president, Susan Wolfe, said in a statement. “We appreciate the University’s investigation of this serious incident in the wake of recent campus discord. Hate crimes have no place on a college campus or anywhere.”
