Antisemitic vandals broke into a fraternity house with Jewish members on the campus of George Washington University in Washington DC on Saturday night just after the end of the Sabbath, tore apart a paper replica Torah scroll and covered it in detergent, according to the Jewish on Campus watchdog organization. The vandals poured hot sauce all over the house.
“This hateful act of antisemitic violence must be immediately condemned and thoroughly investigated by @GWtweets administration,” Jewish on Campus said in a statement posted in a series of tweets. “An attack on Jewish spaces and the destruction of a Torah is an attack on all Jews.
“For anyone confused about how serious this is: the Torah is the center of Jewish ritual life and Torah scrolls are invaluable. A single Torah takes over a year to make, and even the slightest damage can render it non-kosher.”
The American Jewish Committee called on law and enforcement and the GWU administration to ‘swiftly identify and apprehend those responsible for this horrific act of antisemitism.”
Washington DC Chapter of Sunrise Tweets Anti-Zionist Hate
Earlier this month, the Washington DC chapter of Sunrise, a group concerned about climate change, boycotted a voting rights rally due to the participation of only Jewish groups that support Israel, but no others.
Our statement on future coalition spaces with Zionist organizations: pic.twitter.com/oBj6pbtv6r
— Sunrise DC (@SunriseMvmtDC)
“We are declining a speaking slot at the Freedom to Vote Relay – Rally at the Finish Line due to the participation of a number of Zionist organizations in the Declaration for American Democracy coalition,” the group wrote in an open letter posted to Twitter. “This includes the Jewish Council on Public Affairs, the National Council of Jewish Women and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, which are all in alignment with and in support of Zionism and the State of Israel.
“Given our commitment to racial justice, self-governance, and indigenous sovereignty, we oppose Zionism and any state than enforces its ideology,” the group continued, citing Israeli “violent oppressive tactics” and “occupation of the land of Palestine and its people,” claiming that Israel “treats all Palestinians, as well as Black and brown Jewish-Israelis, as second class citizens who have virtually no responsive representation in government, often subjecting them to extreme policing and brutality.”
Antisemitic Hate Rising in America
To put things in perspective: Nearly four in ten American Jews have changed their behavior in the last year out of fear of antisemitism, according to the recent report by the AJC, The State of Antisemitism in America in 2021.
“Nine out of ten American Jews believe the cancer of antisemitism is spreading in the US. Eight out of ten believe Jew hatred has been on the rise in the last five years. And neither age, political affiliation, nor level of religiosity makes much of a difference in who feels that way,” the AJC wrote in its takeaway on the survey.
“In fact, 31 percent of American Jews say they are less secure than a year ago and nearly one in four respondents said the Jewish institutions to which they belong had been targeted by antisemites.
“Twenty-two percent of the US Jews said in the past 12 months they have avoided publicly wearing, carrying, or displaying things that might help people identify them as a Jew. One out of four Jews said they avoided posting content online that would broadcast them as Jewish.”