Anti-Semitic sketch found in Bloomberg

Public Safety is investigating an incident in which a possibly anti-Semitic drawing was found on a blackboard in a study room on the third floor of Bloomberg Hall on Saturday night.

Lisa Glukhovsky '08 entered the study room around 7:40 p.m. and saw the white chalk drawing on the blackboard. It depicted a building labeled "Jewish library," stick figures labeled "little Jews" and two large missiles aimed at the building with arrows pointing downward. A swastika was also drawn on the top right corner of the blackboard.

Shortly afterwards, two friends joined her in the study room. They then called Public Safety, and Patrol Officer Attila Horvath arrived half an hour later to write up the incident and take photos.

Horvath filed the report as a "bias incident" and is in the process of interviewing students who live in Bloomberg about the event. The state of New Jersey defines a bias incident as "any suspected or confirmed offense or unlawful act which occurs to a person, private property, or public property on the basis of race, color, religion, gender ... handicap, sexual orientation or ethnicity." When such incidents occur on campus, New Jersey law requires the University to report them to the state.

Public Safety did not respond to requests for comment.

University communications director Lauren Robinson-Brown '85 said, "We can't jump to conclusions as to who perpetrated this incident." She explained that the specifics of how the investigation will proceed cannot be released to the public but added that anyone who has information about this incident should report it directly to Public Safety.

A similar incident occurred in Dod Hall in December 2004, when a swastika was drawn on a whiteboard outside a dorm room.

Glukhovsky, who is also a Daily Princetonian photographer, said she thought the drawing might be a reference to a fundraiser hosted by the Center for Jewish Life (CJL), during which participants played poker to raise money for the Metzudot Primary School's library in Israel, which was destroyed by missiles in July.

At least two observant Jews live on the third floor of Bloomberg, and other Jewish students also live on the floor. Juniors Noam Tanner and Theo Yale have mezuzahs on their doorframes and wear yarmulkes on a daily basis.

"I think [the drawing] is just people messing around," Yale said Saturday night.

Yale added that this was not the first instance of a possibly anti-Semitic incident that has happened on his floor. Last fall, Yale heard a group of "very loud and obviously drunken group of boys ... walking down the hall in the middle of the night," he said in an email.

Upon seeing the mezuzah on his door, "one of them was shouting something like 'Hey, a Jew. A Jew lives here!' and started banging on my door." Yale did not open the door, but when he walked out later, he "saw they had written a big 'J' on my whiteboard, which I erased."

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"Yes, it was a little creepy, but I certainly didn't think: 'Oh, no, Princeton's full of anti-Semites' or anything like that," he said. "As for being fascinated with 'the Jew,' even that isn't so strange. Many people are, all over the world."

CJL executive director Rabbi Julie Roth said, "this incident does not reflect a widespread climate of anti-Semitism ... this one incident in no way detracts the fact that we have a vibrant, diverse and thriving Jewish community supported by the University."

"I think this is a serious matter because I believe that hate at any level and intolerance, left unchecked, can escalate," she said, adding that she would "certainly reach out to the students who live in Bloomberg. I really urge anybody who saw the incident take place to step forward and talk to Public Safety about what they saw."

Yale said the incident was "stupid, despicable and ... hurtful."

"But," he added, "getting upset every time someone draws a swastika ... takes more out of me than it does [out of] them. I'm content to forgive that kind of ignorance after the fact, so long as there's no harm to person or property, and get on with my life."

Many expressed particular concern about the use of the swastika symbol. "I'm pretty shocked," Tanner said at the time of the incident, adding that the reference to "little Jews" was "really too much."

In an interview Sunday, Tanner said he initially thought the drawing was "just people playing around" until he noticed the swastika in the corner of the drawing.

Roth said, "I think students at Princeton need to realize that this is not the kind of thing that you play around with ... even if the person was drunk, it does not excuse the behavior."

"I wouldn't [say it] leads to the conclusion that anyone specific was a target, just by the nature of [the drawing] being in a common room," Robinson-Brown said, adding that "these incidents are taken very seriously. We have a commitment to respect and civil discourse on campus."

Tanner said that he has never noticed any anti-Semitic sentiment on campus before. "To be honest, if it wasn't Princeton, I would be more worried," he said.

"The people on this floor are very nice and very respectful," he said Saturday. "I don't know what to make of it," he said, speculating that it could be an inside joke.

CJL student board president Matt Kandel '09 responded to the incident in an email. "I feel shocked and angered that someone at Princeton would produce something so bigoted. The drawing vividly demonstrates that the entire Princeton community must stay ever vigilant to eliminate hatred from our own midst in addition to the world around us."

"This is not only a Jewish issue," he said. "I hope that [all] students will take this incident to heart."