Memorial Glade and Sather Tower on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. Photo: Gku.

Officials with the University of California, Berkeley on Thursday told The Algemeiner that a recent instance of vandalism of a Jewish fraternity’s house may not have been an intentional act of antisemitism.

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) fraternity said in a statement posted to social media on Sunday that a group of six people placed shellfish on their front door, tossed the fish inside through open windows, and piled more on the front porch and across the property.

But university officials said that the incident may not have been an act of antisemitism.

“New details have emerged that suggest this incident might not have been targeted specifically at the Jewish fraternity, and that similar vandalism — the deposit of shellfish — may have occurred at multiple fraternities,” a UC Berkeley spokesperson said in a statement. “Regardless of the chain of events, the members of the Jewish fraternity were very understandably upset to see what appeared to be a targeted attack on their Jewish religious and cultural traditions.”

UC Berkeley added that it has “taken this issue very seriously and has been in regular communication with key stakeholders on campus and at the fraternity about next steps and how best to move forward.”

Police later confirmed on Thursday that the vandalism was not an antisemitic incident.

“The Berkeley Police Department has determined that a hate crime did not occur,” Jessica Perry, a Berkeley police public information officer, told J. The Jewish News of Northern California. “We confirmed that multiple fraternities had shellfish dumped in their yards on the early morning of August 26th. We want to reiterate that our department did not take this investigation lightly and confirmed through further investigation that the involved students did, in fact, not target Alpha Epsilon Pi.”

In a statement, the Berkeley chapter of AEPi expressed relief but said the incident still raised concerns for Jewish students.

“While we can’t imagine the rationale for this, we are gratified to know that AEPi may not have been specifically singled out because of our commitment to being Jewish,” the fraternity said. “Ignorance, however, does not excuse antisemitism and this event has contributed to an environment in which Jewish students are concerned for their safety and being discriminated against.”

The fraternity added that some of the people “who perpetrated this act have come forward to our chapter’s leadership and apologized for their actions.”

The vandalism of the AEPi house came amid a nationwide surge in antisemitic incidents and, more recently, swattings that have shut down prayer services in synagogues and forced evacuations at other Jewish institutions.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, 2019 antisemitic incidents occurred on US college campuses in 2022, a 41 precent increase from the prior year. The total included 127 incidents of harassment, 90 of vandalism, and two of assault. Meanwhile, 19 percent of incidents referenced Israel and Zionism, a total of 25 targeted Hillel centers, and one third involved swastika imagery.

This story has been updated to include statements from the Berkeley Police Department and the Berkeley chapter of AEPi.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.