The University of Minnesota chapter of Hillel was vandalized on June 7 amid a storm of controversy surrounding the university’s stance on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
At 2 a.m., the windows of the Hillel building were “heavily damaged,” which was observed by the University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD) when they arrived on the scene. As reported by KSTP, no SAFE-U advisory alert was issued to report the incident. SAFE-U advisories are issued in the event of “an emergency or dangerous situation that poses an immediate or ongoing threat to campus.”
Hillel’s windows were repaired by evening the same day, while UMPD continues to investigate the incident.
Alpha News reached out to the University of Minnesota’s Hillel chapter for comment. Minnesota Hillel’s outgoing Executive Director Benjie Kaplan told Alpha News, “we are grateful that no students or staff were in the building at the time of the incident, and for the speedy response of the UMPD and JCRC Security Team.” Kaplan explained that, “due to the ongoing nature of the UMPD investigation, we are not sharing images or details about the incident at this time.”
The vandalism incident comes as the university has faced increased scrutiny for its position on the Israel-Hamas war. On Thursday, 69 Minnesota state representatives and senators signed a letter demanding the inclusion of “Jewish community leaders and Jewish members of your university in all matters regarding Jewish life on your campuses.”
Along with the Hillel vandalism, the letter highlighted “the potential hiring of professor Raz Segal to be the next director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies” who referred to the invasion of Gaza as “a textbook case of genocide.”
“While we are elated that President Ettinger has put a pause on the selection of the Director and will be deciding the next steps, we are extremely concerned that it took an outcry from the Jewish community to bring about this action,” the letter said.
The letter also expressed concern about “the anti-Israel encampments” and “the Cultural Critique journal editors explicitly rejecting a submission by an author because of his affiliation with an Israeli academic institution.”
Additionally, the letter criticized the university for refusing to take down an “inflammatory posting” on the College of Liberal Arts website that accuses Israel of carrying out a “genocidal war” and “settler colonial violence.” In January, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it opened an investigation into the university after a complaint was filed alleging antisemitism.
Numerous professors from various universities signed an undated open letter expressing support for Professor Segal’s hiring, claiming that, “by overruling the faculty experts who selected Dr. Segal, the University of Minnesota’s administrators have effectively issued a vote of no confidence in its own faculty.”
On Friday, the university announced that it would be postponing its search for a new Holocaust and Genocide Studies director for a year or more. The Jewish Community Relations Council for Minnesota and the Dakotas stated that the decision was a sign “we’ve been heard” and said it has confirmed there will be “more direct community involvement in the Center Director search process.”
State Rep. Marion Rarick, R-Maple Lake, who led the letter along with Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, told Alpha News that she “sent the same two emails to all members of the House and Senate, both parties, and their LAs (legislative assistants) asking them to join Latz and me on the letter. Latz helped to write it and it was truly a joint effort. I asked all the LAs to personally contact their member to ask if they wanted to sign on. Not one other Democrat responded. I even delayed the closing and sending to allow more time to get answers back. Still no response.”
Evan Poellinger
Evan Poellinger, the Alpha News Summer 2024 Journalism Fellow, is a native Minnesotan with a lifelong passion for history and politics. He previously worked as a journalism intern with the American Spectator and an investigative journalism fellow with the Media Research Center. He is a graduate of College of the Holy Cross with degrees in political science and history.
