Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Duke’s Jewish Life Center Is Vandalized

The sign for a Jewish center at Duke University was vandalized, the campus student newspaper reported.

The Freeman Center for Jewish Life reported the graffiti to Duke Police on Sunday afternoon, the Duke Chronicle reported. The words Jewish in Freeman Center for Jewish Life and Rubinstein in Rubenstein-Silvers Hillel were crossed out with blue spray-paint. The sign was later cleaned.

No suspects have been identified.

“I certainly do not believe that this is in any way indicative of a larger campus issue, as this is generally a very respectful campus,” Rabbi Jeremy Yoskowitz, an assistant director for Jewish life, wrote in an email Monday, according to the newspaper. “I believe that this is an isolated incident and that in general, Duke students conduct themselves responsibly and honorably.”

Last month, a member of the Jewish Student Union executive board destroyed part of a display and flipped over a table of food at an event hosted by the Duke Students for Justice in Palestine.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.