Columbia Professor’s Office Defaced With Swastikas
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — The office of a Jewish professor at Columbia University was spray painted with anti-Semitic graffiti.
Swastikas were spray painted on two walls of the office of Elizabeth Midlarsky, professor of psychology and education, at Columbia Teachers College. The word “YID” also was spray painted on a wall of the office of the professor, who is Jewish and who researches and publishes about the Holocaust.
The vandalism was discovered on Wednesday afternoon. The New York Police Department is investigating the incident, the Columbia Spectator student newspaper reported about two hours after the graffiti was discovered. All Teachers College academic buildings require an ID for entrance, according to the Spectator.
“I was in shock,” Midlarsky, who is 77 and says she is in poor health, told the newspaper. “I stopped for a moment, because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”
“We unequivocally condemn any expression of hatred, which has no place in our society. We are outraged and horrified by this act of aggression and use of this vile anti-Semitic symbol against a valued member of our community,” Teachers College President Thomas Bailey said in a statement.
In 2007, Midlarsky was the victim of anti-Semitic vandalism at the university, when a swastika was spray painted on her office door and anti-Semitic fliers were left in her mailbox.
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.
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.
