An unidentified perpetrator slashed a swastika into furniture located in the Rockefeller Center's main lobby, upsetting building staff as well as administrators and students.
A student found and reported the anti-Semitic symbol, located on a bench cushion in the unlocked building, to Safety and Security at approximately 6:30 p.m. on Saturday. The swastika is currently covered by duct tape until the upholstery can be replaced.
"Incidents like these really do tear up the fabric of our community," Dean of the College James Larimore said. "It's not an easy situation under any circumstances."
Despite a joint investigation by Safety and Security and the Hanover Police Department, officials have amassed few details about the incident since Saturday, Hanover Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone said.
For the inquiry to progress, witnesses must come forward, Giaccone said, as the current dearth of information has provided investigators with few leads to follow.
No other vandalism was found when Safety and Security officers searched the entire building Saturday night, according to Larimore.
Dartmouth witnessed another anti-Semitic hate crime last January, when a Jewish student reported that a swastika had been sketched on the dry-erase board outside her dorm room.
Safety and Security alerted Rockefeller Center Director Linda Fowler Saturday, as well as Rabbi Edward Boraz and Assistant Dean of the College Steven Cornish, who was on call at the time. Larimore said that he did not hear about the crime until Monday morning.
Since then, administration members have notified their colleagues, the Rockefeller Center staff and members of the Hillel Executive Board.
"Because [the swastika] is taped over, it's easy not to see it. But for those of us who work in the building, we know it's there and we felt that it was important to acknowledge that somebody had done a very hateful thing," Fowler said. "We think it's an insult to all of the people who use the center."
Administrators and campus Jewish leaders condemned the act as an attack on Dartmouth as a whole rather than solely on the Jewish student population.
"I think the entire community must always be watchful for these types of expressions of hate that truly cut across cultural lines," Boraz said. "An expression of hate targeted against one group involves every group of students, regardless of denomination or affiliation."
Hillel representatives joined Boraz in denouncing the hate crime, but said that it does not represent any pervading anti-Semitic sentiment on campus.
"We don't see it as indicative of the Dartmouth community and we know that the Dartmouth community will join us in condemning the act and not making room for hatred on this campus," Hillel president Evan Konweiser '03 said.
"It hasn't made us feel more unsafe -- just more committed to eliminating these acts of hatred," he added.
