Over the past month, some students have spotted several antisemitic symbols graffitied around Northwestern’s campus.
In early February, a student posted a photo of one of the hate symbols, which resembled a swastika, on the social media platform Fizz. The University was quick to remove the symbols it found Feb. 1 and launched an investigation, an NU spokesperson wrote to The Daily on Feb. 8.
More symbols have been spotted since then. The Daily confirmed that at least five graffitied antisemitic symbols have been found on various parts of campus throughout the month.
When Bienen junior Ilan Nevo, who is Jewish, first saw people posting about the symbol online, he said he did not have much of a reaction. However, he said it made him think of his grandfather, who he said escaped the Nazis in Germany during the 1930s.
“He escaped from that, and then he came here, and now I’m sitting here, and I’m looking at that,” Nevo said. “It didn’t make me feel any fear. It just made me kind of sad that this is what it has come to.”
The University did not respond to a question about how it approached removing the graffiti or its presence on campus.
When previously asked about student-reported antisemitic graffiti, the University wrote in a statement to The Daily on Feb. 8 that they “immediately removed or painted over” the graffiti.
NU Hillel Experiences Co-Chair and Weinberg junior Callie Berthold described discourse on Jewish student life and the Israel-Hamas war during her first couple of years on campus as “stressful and strenuous” for the Jewish community.
She noted she felt like this feeling had been dying down until seeing the symbols.
“Seeing symbols around campus popping up with specifically hateful language and symbolism toward Jewish people … it hits, and it hurts as a Jewish student,” she said.
Berthold said she has heard similar sentiments from other Jewish students, as many have expressed sadness over these incidents. She described that it felt like a “wind back” after NU’s community worked hard to build safe spaces, resources and communal trust.
Both Berthold and Nevo said they have not seen as many antisemitic symbols in their time on campus as they have recently.
“People know that hate has no place on our campus, and it’s just ridiculous at this point that it’s still coming up,” Berthold said.
NU Hillel Executive Director Michael Simon said he first heard about the symbols from discussions with students.
He said they appreciated how seriously NU was taking its response to the symbols. By the time Simon said he reached out to the University, they told him they were already investigating.
“We’ve been progressing toward trying to ensure that (NU is) a community that tries to be free from any kind of harassment, intimidation, threat — certainly hateful symbols have no place on our campus,” Simon said. “It’s really important that people in authority, like campus administrators, react with empathy and moral clarity to make it known that Northwestern doesn’t condone hate in any form.”
The Northwestern University Police Department arrested Shahid Hussain, who a University spokesperson wrote had no affiliation with NU, for antisemitic graffiti found on campus on Feb. 12, according to a NU statement Feb. 18. He faces criminal charges, including a hate crime charge.
The University did not respond to a question about whether all the graffiti found on campus could be attributed to Hussain.
At least two instances of antisemitic graffiti have also been reported off campus. The Evanston Police Department confirmed to The Daily in a statement Feb. 18 that the department is actively investigating but remains unable to confirm if the instances are related. Images reviewed by The Daily show the symbols off campus resemble those discovered at NU on Feb. 1.
Nevo said he hopes NU promotes conversation between different student groups to address the sentiment behind the graffiti. He said he felt the University has taken agency out of students’ hands and “infantilize(d)” them.
“Make students on campus from different social groups interact and learn about each other, because that’s how you actually defeat these prejudices,” Nevo said. “Not by (telling) some people, ‘Oh, go do this module, and I’ll lecture at you.’ That just creates more division.”
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— Evanston Police investigating ‘swastika graffiti’ on Davis Street
