This fall, anti-Semitism reared its head at the University of Minnesota, not once, but twice within five days. The first instance took place on the Washington Avenue Bridge, which spans the Mississippi River and connects UMN’s East and West Bank campuses. Every year, student groups show off to the entire campus by painting the inside panels of the bridge. This year, the Jewish fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), discovered their panel had been defaced with encircled swastikas, “SS” written on both sides. “We’ve been on campus only a short time,” said fraternity president Daniel Levin. “This is the first time that we’re experiencing anything like this.” AEPi came to the university in 2001 but was not officially re-chartered until 2003.
Just five days later, university professors and teaching assistants found anti-Semitic literature slipped under their doors in the social sciences building. Distribution of the pamphlets appeared to have been targeted to one group of faculty members – those with Jewish last names. They included a review of When Victims Rule: A Critique of Jewish Pre-Eminence in America, written by Kevin MacDonald, a notorious anti-Semite. Handwritten along the margins were numerous phrases including “All the intellectual architects of liberalism and the left are Jews.” Although officials are not sure who distributed the literature, a professor in the political science department saw a man wandering around the 14th floor of the building, though he was uncertain whether the man was carrying any documents. When questioned about UMN’s response, university police detective Bob Herberg explained that, unless it is directed at specific individuals, hate speech is not a crime.
Anti-Semitic acts have been few and far between at UMN, but these incidents were not the first. Sarah Feinwachs, now a senior, recalls a first-hand experience three years ago, when she attempted to hang a mezuzah on the doorframe of her dorm room. Repeatedly, Feinwachs would return home to find her mezuzah stolen. She took drastic measures to secure and tighten it to her door, but the mezuzah continued to disappear. Occasionally, she would return to find that someone had attempted to straighten the mezuzah – mezuzot are traditionally hung at an angle – but most often, it was simply gone. Finally, Feinwachs consulted with her rabbi, who said that under the circumstances it would be kosher to hang the mezuzah inside her door.
While anti-Semitic incidents cause a stir on campus, they are few and far between at UMN. Since this fall’s events, things have been quiet. But, says Amy Olson, director of UMN’s Hillel, “It’s unfortunate and terrible that anti-Semitism is alive and well.”
