(JTA) — The mayor of Cincinnati and the Anti-Defamation League denounced the spray-painting of a swastika on a sign at a Reform rabbinical school.
On Tuesday morning, a white swastika was discovered on a sign on the Cincinnati campus of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. It was reported to the police shortly thereafter and later removed, according to Rabbi Kenneth Kanter, associate dean and director of the rabbinical school.
“This act of hate perpetrated against our brothers and sisters at Hebrew Union College is an attack on our entire community. … The city is committed to using all of our resources to bring these criminals to justice,” Mayor John Cranley said Tuesday in a statement.
On Wednesday, the Anti-Defamation League called the incident “troubling” and “an attack not just on HUC-JIR but on the fabric of pluralism and religious freedom in the country.”
“This act of anti-Semitic vandalism is despicable and must be recognized as an attack on the entire community,” Anita Gray, ADL’s Ohio/Kentucky/Allegheny Regional director, said in a statement.
Kanter told JTA on Tuesday that he was not aware of any similar acts of vandalism occurring on the Cincinnati campus in the past five or six years.
In the aftermath of the presidential election in November, the U.S. has seen a nationwide increase in anti-Semitic and other hate crimes.
Author
Josefin Dolsten
Josefin Dolsten is a former news fellow at the Forward, writing about politics and culture, and editing the Sisterhood blog. She received an MA in Jewish Studies and Comparative Religion from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a BA in Government from Cornell University. Follow her on Twitter at @josefindolsten.
Cincinnati Mayor Condemns Swastika at Hebrew Union College Rabbinical School