The Memorial Union as seen from the Library Mall on the UW–Madison campus (Wikipedia Commons) The outside of the Hillel building at the University of Wisconsin in Madison was vandalized on Tuesday, according to the organization.
The words “Free Palestine” appeared on the concrete structure that welcomes people to the building, also known as the Barbara Hochberg Center for Jewish Student Life.
“We view this act of vandalism as targeting the Jewish community and as an incident of bias,” said UW Hillel president and CEO Greg Steinberger in a Facebook post on Tuesday on the UW Hillel Foundation page.
Steinberger said Hillel has contacted the Madison Metropolitan Police Department and the University of Wisconsin Police Department, in addition to notifying UW Hillel’s student leaders and board of directors.
“Our campus community is resilient and strong, and we will clean up the graffiti, work with the community on the investigation and move forward leading with our commitment to empowering students to build vibrant community based on values of love, respect, justice and peace,” said Steinberger.
Out of 44,411 students at the university, 5,200 of them are Jewish or around 12 percent, according to Hillel International.
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