U. Missouri Jewish Groups Demand Action After Swastika Incident
Thirty-six organizations wrote a letter to University of Missouri Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin calling for protection of the campus Jewish community days before he announced his resignation over questions about his leadership in the wake of racial tensions on campus.
The letter by the Jewish and pro-Israel organizations expressed concern over reports of a swastika drawn in feces in the wall of a bathroom in a residence hall on Oct. 24.
“We are dismayed that neither you nor any other MU administrator has yet to publicly address this act of blatant anti-Semitism, which clearly targets Jewish students and causes them to feel threatened and unsafe,” the letter read, according to reports.
It is not the first act of anti-Semitism on the MU campus. In April, swastikas and anti-Semitic epithets were written in ash in the stairwell of a campus dormitory. A freshman at the university was arrested for the vandalism.
The letter called on Loftin to “demonstrate unequivocally your commitment to protecting Jewish students no less than other students on your campus” and offers steps he should take to confront acts of anti-Semitism on campus.
In a response to the letter, Loftin said that the university administration “did not immediately respond to the feces swastika “in order to give law enforcement time to investigate,” according to the MU student newspaper, The Maneater.
“Our stance has not and will not change — the University of Missouri seeks to be a welcoming and inclusive campus to all students, faculty, staff and visitors,” Loftin also said in his reply. “We are committed to mandatory training of our people in inclusion and diversity and will continue to work with all to build the framework necessary to achieve our goal.”
Loftin announced Monday that he would resign at the end of this calendar year. His resignation came six hours after the university system’s president, Tim Wolfe, resigned in the wake of the backlash over what students said was an inadequate response to racial incidents on campus.
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.
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 the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
