Oregon Student Charged for Anti-Semitic Rant Outside Jewish Fraternity
A University of Oregon student has been arrested and charged with intimidation for allegedly shouting anti-Semitic slurs at another student outside of a Jewish fraternity.
The student was identified as Damien Leon Ramirez, 23, a cinema studies major, the university told the local newspaper, The Register-Guard. The university is located in Eugene, Ore.
A 20-year old man told police that Ramirez was sitting in his pickup truck parked outside the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi. When the man told Ramirez to leave, he allegedly responded with anti-Semitic slurs. Ramirez then got out of the truck and said he would return with a firearm.
Robin Holmes, vice president for Student Life at the university, said in a statement published on the website of news station KEZI that the university community is “deeply disturbed,” by the Oct. 30 incident, reported by news outlets for the first time on Tuesday evening.
“We do not tolerate hate crimes or threats founded in bias against any individuals or groups,” the statement said.
Holmes added that University President Michael Schill has “personally reached out to express his concern and support for the fraternity. The university will continue to work with Alpha Epsilon Pi to ensure that they have the resources and support needed to feel safe as a part of our campus community.”
In July 2014, unknown vandals etched 11 black swastikas on a cluster mailbox in front of the AEPi house.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
