Yale Bathroom Graffiti Warns of Arson Attack on Jewish Center During Shavuot
Graffiti scrawled in a bathroom in a Yale University science building threatened an arson attack on the campus Slifka Center for Jewish Life.
The graffiti was discovered late last month but was first reported in the local media on Tuesday. The exact wording of the graffiti has not been released, but it reportedly threatened an attack for May 16, the second day of the major Jewish holiday of Shavuot.
Police in New Haven, Conn., and the FBI are investigating, the New Haven Register reported.
“This is a very disturbing incident for a community such as ours, in which tolerance of all races, religions and points of view is a fundamental value,” Yale Vice President Linda Koch Lorimer said in a statement. “A threat to any community within our university is a threat to us all.”
Slifka Center programs have continued on schedule, and upcoming events including Shavuot programs have not been altered.
“Difficult times can serve to remind us of our many blessings,” a statement issued by the center said. “Slifka Center is fortunate to be a vibrant hub of Jewish and interfaith life within a welcoming community, in which incidents such as this one are very rare.”
A Slifka Center board member said the news of the graffiti was not released to the public sooner in order to allow the police to do some investigation quietly.
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