Bloomington, Indiana – According to Bloomington Police, they are looking into a vandalism incident that happened to a sacred item last month.
The victim said that their Mezuzah had been torn from a doorway and partially torched when police were called to the 400 block of North College Avenue. A Mezuzah is a decorative container that is often hung in the door frame of a Jewish home and includes a Hebrew verse from the Torah.
Indiana University Professor of Jewish Studies and founder of IU institute for the study of antisemitism Alvin Rosenfeld said, “Last year continuing into this year, there have been some ugly incidents involving the stripping of Mezuzahs.”
He claims that there are a significant number of Jews who attend Indiana University and that the university has a long history of being highly accommodating to the Jewish community. He thinks that these occurrences show a rise in antisemitism across the nation.
“When the economy goes down, antisemitism goes up because outrageously Jews are blamed for that and all kinds of other things,” Rosenfeld said.
Rosenfeld is a member of an advisory council researching campus antisemitism. Rosenfeld is concerned that these occurrences could become more serious even though no one has been wounded so far.
He attributes the rise of antisemitism to social media.
“There is a great deal of hate on Twitter against Jews and others, and students just like anyone else spend endless hours on social media, being exposed to this stuff,” Rosenfeld said.
In this instance, Jeremy Chung Ho Park Patzelt was charged with criminal mischief.
The court date for Patzelt is set on November 15. According to Bloomington police, this case is still pending.
