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Indiana University Opens New Jewish Cultural Center After String of Antisemitic Incidents
by Dion J. Pierre
Sample Gates at Indiana University Bloomington. Photo: IT Communications Office / Wikimedia Commons.
Following an academic year that saw a surge of antisemitic incidents on campus, the University of Indiana-Bloomington has opened a new Jewish center to foster cultural exchange and knowledge of the history of antisemitism.
The Jewish Culture Center will offer programs for Jewish students and faculty, along with others on campus hoping to learn more about Judaism. Its opening comes after several high-profile incidents led to the creation of an Antisemitism Prevention Task Force on campus, as well as the Mezuzah Project, an effort to distribute hundreds of Jewish prayer scrolls across the campus.
Most recently, in March, an anonymous user posted an antisemitic tirade on GreekRank.com that accused Jewish fraternity members of being “east coast Jews” with an appetite for “money, greed, and sexually assaulting women.” In the fall semester, at least a dozen mezuzahs were stolen from Jewish students during the High Holidays, while during Hanukkah, swastikas were graffitied on IU’s campus and its surrounding neighborhood.
“I’ve been on campus now for 32 years, and I just had not seen or heard these kinds of sustained and virulent antisemitic attacks,” Rabbi Sue Laikin Silberberg, executive director of IU Hillel, told a local ABC affiliate on Wednesday. “It’s really important to work together as a community to learn more about each other and to promote understanding because I think once we get to know each other, we can celebrate our differences, as opposed to being afraid of them.”
According to WRTV, the new center is located in a section of the Hillel Center that was repurposed for its creation at the request of students participating in the Antisemitism Task Force. Plans for future programming include celebrations of Jewish holidays, educational events about the Holocaust, and the creation of a visual model on antisemitism.
“For many [students], it’s their first opportunity to learn about people who are different from themselves,” Silberberg told WRTV. “And in my mind, each one of us has so much that we can offer in terms of teaching and understanding and learning and breaking down the barriers to hate.”
