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(New York Jewish Week) — Queens School’s Hillel chapter says current graffiti on campus focusing on Jews was a risk to pupil security and demanded motion from the faculty administration.
The graffiti on buildings round campus included the messages, “You higher begin hiding, Jews,” “Israelis, I’m coming after you,” and “Hitler, please come again. Train Jews a lesson,” in line with an announcement launched by the faculty’s Hillel director, Jenna Citron Schwab.
The assertion, issued Thursday, mentioned the faculty’s Jewish group had skilled related threats beforehand and had been warning school management for weeks about escalating antisemitism on campus.
“The vandalism threatens the security of Jews,” the assertion mentioned. “Antisemitism has no place on our campus or in any society.”
The Hillel demanded that the faculty name out antisemitism, take steps to implement its code of conduct to forestall antisemitic vandalism and punish the perpetrators.
The school’s president, Frank Wu, despatched a statement to the campus group on Thursday saying that “antisemitic graffiti” was present in a number of bogs and police had been notified.
“Queens School stands strongly towards non secular intolerance, racism, sexism, and bigotry of any variety,” Wu mentioned.
In a follow-up assertion on Friday, Wu mentioned that the NYPD had categorised one occasion of graffiti as a hate crime and the others as legal mischief.
“Let me be clear: Antisemitism has completely no place on the Queens School campus,” Wu mentioned.
A Queens School spokesperson instructed the New York Jewish Week that Wu meets usually with Hillel representatives and that they’re “working collectively to deal with antisemitism.”
Queens School has about 4,000 Jewish college students, near 30% of its pupil physique of 13,510, in line with Hillel worldwide.
The NYPD instructed the New York Jewish Week it had obtained two reviews of graffiti at Queens School on Wednesday, each inside a girls’s toilet. There have been no descriptions accessible of suspects within the vandalism. Police mentioned the Hate Crimes Job Drive has been notified.
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Queens School is a part of the Metropolis College of New York system, the nation’s largest city school community, which has a complete of 226,000 college students throughout its campuses. CUNY has grappled with allegations of antisemitism for years, and has taken measures to forestall the unfold of anti-Jewish sentiment on campus, together with via a partnership with the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
Tensions have been excessive at Queens School amid the Israel-Hamas battle. A gathering between Muslim and Jewish college students in November devolved into shouting. Muslim college students on the assembly expressed assist for Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror assault on Israel, which launched the battle, and castigated an imam who organized the discuss.
Wu spoke out towards the college’s Muslim College students Affiliation in November after the group denied Hamas atrocities. His criticism drew backlash from pro-Palestinian supporters on campus.
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