Elizabeth Midlarsky Jewish professor and Holocaust scholar at Columbia University in New York was blown away by the sight of two swastikas and an anti-Semitic slur with red spray paint on the walls of her office.
Midlarsky said she was heading into her office at Columbia Teacher’s College around 1 p.m. when she found the hate symbols doodled across the walls in red paint, along with a demeaning word also written on the wall.
“I was in shock,” Midlarsky told the paper. “I stopped for a moment because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”
Katrina Webster, a master’s student, said “It’s very bad. I just hope it’s not someone within the TC community,” adding “The goal of education is so that something like this doesn’t happen.”
Midlarsky faced a similar hate attack back in 2007 when a swastika was spray-painted on her office door and anti-Semitic flyers dropped in her mailbox, her name was written and was crossed out.
Teachers College president Thomas Bailey issued a statement.
“We unequivocally condemn any expression of hatred, which has no place in our society,” the statement said. “We are outraged and horrified by this act of aggression and use of this vile anti-Semitic symbol against a valued member of our community.”
police are continuing their investigation into who committed the vandalism.
