Tuesday night’s forum on the defacement of Northwestern’s Tannenbaum Chabad House menorah prompted discussion among attendees about the motives of the vandals and how the incident reflected upon the NU community.
Attendees filled Technological Institute Room L211 for the hour and a half forum moderated by Dean of Students Burgwell Howard. Howard began the event with a brief statement and read a letter from University President Morton Schapiro, who was unable to attend, condemning the act of vandalism.
The forum was framed as a discussion of anti-Semitism, racism and diversity.
Evanston Police Cmder. Tom Guenther told the daily Tuesday that the vandalism had never been categorized as a hate crime.
“We’re following up on leads,” Guenther said. “But we’re currently investigating it as a damage to property crime.”
According to Rabbi Dov Hillel Klein , the attack definitely constituted a hate crime.
“What would compel someone to have so much anger to take a religious object and desecrate it? I don’t believe that whoever did this just bumped into a menorah and didn’t know it was a menorah,” Klein said. “This isn’t a random act. It was a deliberate act. Whether it was anti-semitic or not, it harmed the community.”
Regardless of whether the vandals’s motivations were anti-Semitic, some students at the forum argued that the vandalism was still a hateful act.
“I tried to calm down and think, ‘Was it a hate crime or just drunk college kids having fun?’ (Either way) it’s still not okay,” Weinberg junior and Chabad Executive Board member Camila Benaim said.
Although they did not downplay the significance of the event, students made sure to recognize it as an isolated event that did not reflect the attitude on campus toward Jewish members of the community.
“It’s important to recognize that this doesn’t happen often,” Weinberg sophomore Sammie Offsay said. “Northwestern has created an environment where the Jewish community is integrated and feels strong as a community and part of NU.”
One of the most salient themes of the forum was the outpouring of support from non-Jewish students.
Despite this incident, both students and faculty at the forum maintained that NU is ultimately one community, which feels the pain of all its sub-communities.
“The Jewish community has gone through injustices in their history, and these acts serve to remind them of these bad memories, ” Communications senior Beth Lynk, a non-Jewish student, said. “It reminded a minority that they are a minority.”
In order to prevent similar future incidents, some attendees suggested including a discussion of respect for campus religious groups in orientation seminars like Essential NUs, inviting religious groups to dining halls to educate students about their beliefs and building coalitions between religious groups.
Howard said this negative event can ultimately yield positive results.
“Sometimes you learn more from these challenges than if nothing ever happened,” Howard said. “Challenges are learning opportunities.”
