University campuses across the country continue to grapple with anti-Semitic incidents, weeks after the deadly shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue. The latest addition to the tally is Duke University.
According to the school, on Sunday night, the Nazi symbol was painted at the East Campus Bridge over a Star of David, which was meant honor the 11 people killed in the Pittsburgh shooting.
Duke’s President Vincent E. Price, while expressing his “frustration and sorrow,” has ensured Jewish students, faculty, and neighbors of safety.
“I pledge that Duke will do whatever we can to protect your safety,” Price wrote in a message to the university community. “That such a craven and cowardly act of vandalism – a desecration of a memorial to individuals who were killed because they were Jewish and practicing their faith – should happen anywhere is extremely distressing. That it should occur in such a visible, public location at Duke should be a matter of grave concern to us all.”
As a fallout from the incident, the university has decided to increase security at the Freeman Center for Jewish Life and install surveillance cameras around the East Campus Bridge.
Earlier this month, in a similar incident, the University of Tennessee in Knoxville saw the mysterious appearance of swastika symbols painted on the monument known as the Rock.