Columbia Professor’s Office Defaced With Swastikas

Image by wikicommons

By JTA November 29, 2018

(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.

A message from our CEO & publisher 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.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

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