A large swastika was found drawn into the snow on the football field Friday at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada.

“This really brought me back to reality that this is something that does exist and I do have to be concerned about it,” Laura Medicoff, head of the school’s Jewish Students Association, told CBC News.

By Saturday the swastika was re-etched into the word “hope.” But students and faculty took to social media to discuss the hate crime.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

One Jewish student, Caroline Kovesi, tweeted the need for an institutionalized change: “After the investigation, I want to see real change & absolute commitment to zero tolerance/real consequences to hate.”

Kovesi, a fifth-year sociology and philosophy student, told CBC News that she would refrain from telling her grandparents, all of whmo are Holocaust survivors, about the incident.

“It’s just such a disgrace to all of my family members who were murdered in the Holocaust,” she said.

The school said the vandalism did not reflect the culture at the university.

“In response to last evening’s expression of hate on Alumni Field, we stand with our community with a message of hope,” it said.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount