Students at the University of Wisconsin are complaining about a lack of action from administrators following an anti-Semitic incident in one of the school’s residence halls. A student posted the now widely shared image of a dorm room door with pictures of swastikas and Hitler taped to it. According to the original post, the administration only required the offending party to issue an apology to the students of the room in Sellery Residential Hall after the Jan. 26 incident.
“If somebody wrote any of the universally forbidden terms — the r-word or the n-word — on a student’s door, then the campus would mobilize, speak out against ignorance in discussion sessions and clubs, and no doubt my professors would bring it up in lectures,” the student wrote on Facebook. “However, two weeks ago when swastikas are deliberately taped all over a Sellery dorm door of a Jewish student, the incident is shared with only a very small group they believe to have been affected. In fact, they isolated the incident entirely, having the resident apologize — that’s it. Where’s the speaking up? Where’s the protest? How come nobody found out? I’m disappointed.”
Local news reported that the students were “disciplined,” however, university officials said “federal law prohibits them from saying what disciplinary sanctions the student who posted the photos received.”
A UW-Madison senior, who asked to remain anonymous, told Red Alert Politics, “When I saw the picture on Facebook, I was utterly horrified that such anti-Semitism is still taking place… It just makes you wonder what in the world was going through this individual’s mind when he took the time to print pictures of swastikas and tape it to someone’s door. You want to think that society has come a long way, but the sad reality is, it hasn’t.”
She added that while the school can’t control students from committing these kinds of actions, the response could have been much better.
“What bothers me the most is the way the situation was dealt with,” she said. “The dorm covered up the event, and simply made the individual apologize. That’s beyond outrageous. If this school is going to continue preaching diversity and acceptance, then they better take action in the proper way. For all the students here, this should be a safe place for anyone and that should be our constant goal.”
The targeted students said they do not feel threatened as a result of the incident, however they do believe that anti-Semitism at large needs to be addressed.
“It was an insensitive joke/prank gone wrong by two people who had no idea what they were doing,” said Jonathan Walters, one of the students who lives in the room. “Mainly, I just wanted to say that we don’t feel threatened and we let housing deal with it, but in no way do we condone anything action like this. Anti-Semitism is overshadowed in our country and it needs to be addressed, but don’t demonize two guys that I have gotten to know well and who were not cognizant of how anti-Semitic their actions were, but who were punished and have learned a great deal since.”
According to the Anti-Defamation League, while there is an alarming trend of anti-Semitism on college campuses “it is important to note that these incidents are relatively rare, and the vast majority of Jewish students report feeling safe on their campuses. When such incidents do occur, they are generally condemned by administrators and the wider campus communities at their respective colleges.”
Officials of the university and the Hillel there did not return email requests for comment.
Last year, 39 acts of vandalism were reported to police around the area during the Jewish Sabbath. According to Dina Weinbach, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Madison, five were anti-Semitic or racist in nature.
In May 2014, university students rejected a resolution calling for UW to divest from Israeli companies. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is a growing trend among far-left activists on campuses throughout the world, and it is becoming increasingly laced with anti-Semitism. Many proponents of the BDS movement perpetuate standard anti-Semitic myths, such as Jewish control of the media, banking and entertainment industries.
