(November 1, 2021, Washington, DC) A George Washington University fraternity house’s Torah was destroyed after a break-in during the early hours of Sunday, Oct. 31. The Torah belonging to Tau Kappa Epsilon was undressed, torn and smeared with laundry detergent. Other areas in the house also saw extensive damage, including hot sauce on the walls and fire alarms ripped out of the walls. 

EMET applauds GWU President Thomas LeBlanc, who said he was “appalled,” for calling out this act of antisemitism for what it is and drawing attention to it. EMET stands in solidarity with the brothers of TKE. 

This event is by no means the first incident of antisemitism this school year; antisemitism has plagued college campuses from Boston to Santa Monica. Mezuzahs - encased prayers handwritten on parchment and affixed to doorposts - have been ripped off doors at Northeastern, Tufts and Indiana; a building at Yale was sprayed with antisemitic graffiti and a rabbi at Santa Monica College had his car vandalized. 

According to a survey by the Anti-Defamation League and Hillel International, one-third of Jewish students have personally experienced antisemitism on college campuses. The fact that half of American Jewish college students feel the need to conceal their Jewish identities is an absolute disgrace, and speaks reams about how many of their peers, professors and even certain administrators have led them to feel a sense of shame when they have every reason to be proud of their identities. 

Said EMET Founder and President Sarah Stern, “Over the years, we have witnessed the normalization of antisemitism in many segments of American society, but nowhere is it more pronounced than on the American college campus, and our Jewish students are on the front lines of attack. We should never forget that the first institutions to adopt Naziism in Germany were universities, who immediately dismissed their Jewish faculty. Too many university administrators have been far too craven in showing solidarity and support for Jewish students as antisemitic attacks have risen to unprecedented levels.  

“Universities have always been hotbeds of inflamed speech, but in many of today’s universities, certain speech is deemed objectionable, and is ‘canceled,’ while others are deemed acceptable, making for a sort of uniformity of speech code. And while we are taught to be very careful about “microaggressions” against certain of our students, others are subjected to blatant, aggressive and sometimes violent attack. This is a far cry from the ‘free speech’ principles enshrined within our Constitution and lends itself to the totalitarian mob rule. 

“In light of that, we would like to express our profound gratitude to George Washington University  President Thomas LeBlanc for his words of solidarity and support for his Jewish students. However, in order to prevent further discrimination against the Jewish community on college campuses throughout the United States, Jews must be afforded the same protections under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act as any other minority group.”