For the second time in ten days, a swastika was found outside of a Jewish student’s dorm room, College President Sian Leah Beilock wrote in an email sent to campus this afternoon. The Hanover Police Department has contested the account and say the symbol looked “non-threatening.”
In this instance, the swastika was allegedly on a “laminated sign” hanging outside of the student’s dorm room in New Hampshire Hall, which is part of the South House housing cluster, according to the Office of Residential Life’s website. The previous swastika was drawn in Topliff Hall, which is adjacent to New Hampshire Hall.
Beilock condemned antisemitism as “cowardly and unacceptable.”
“These acts of harassment and intimidation are in direct opposition to our policies and values,” she wrote.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, Hazel Shapiro ’27, a member of the Rohr Chabad Center at Dartmouth, said drawing swastikas outside of dorm rooms felt “extra personal and hateful” because it involved “tracking down individual people.”
“In general, I feel like stuff like this doesn’t really happen here, so for it to happen twice within two weeks is ridiculous and out of character for this community,” Shapiro said.
The College is “fully supporting” the Hanover Police Department’s criminal investigation and will “increas[e] patrols in that area and in residence halls across campus,” Beilock added.
In an email statement to The Dartmouth, co-presidents of the Jewish Alumni Group Joie Jager-Hyman ’00 and Brian Taylor ’06 condemned the attack.
“There is no symbol more abhorrent to the Jewish community — and to all who stand against hate — than the swastika,” they wrote. “Its reappearance on Dartmouth’s campus, for the second time in just two weeks, strikes at the heart of our community.”
They praised Beilock’s leadership of the College.
“Her administration’s swift response to this latest antisemitic incident reassures us that there is no leader better suited to meet this moment for Dartmouth,” they wrote.
Update Appended (Sept. 27, 2:30 p.m.): This article has been updated to include a statement from alumni group leaders.
Update Appended (Sept. 30, 7:26 a.m.): This article has been update to include information from the Hanover Police Department.
Annabelle Zhang '27 is a reporter and editor from New Jersey. In the classroom, she studies Geography and Government modified with Philosophy and Economics. She enjoys creating recipes, solving puzzles and listening to music.
