Swastika Found At Rutgers Sunday

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — A swastika was found spray-painted on the Rutgers campus Sunday, Oct. 29, making this the second incident of anti-Antisemitism and white supremacy found on the Rutgers campus this October.

Neal Buccino, a spokesperson for Rutgers, confirmed that Rutgers police were called to Stonier Hall at 10 a.m. Sunday, where a large black swastika, surrounded by a red circle with a red line through the swastika, was painted on an exterior wall, according to MyCentralJersey.

Last week, white supremacist recruitment fliers were found taped all over the Rutgers campus, including up by Voorhees Chapel. They were left by Identity Evropa, a white supremacy group. The group is trying to recruit members at college campuses. Related: White Supremacist Fliers Found Again At Rutgers University. Also last week, someone left a hand-scrawled sign reading "Black Lives Don't Matter" on a Rutgers campus bus last Monday, Oct. 23. The white supremacy group tweeted that they did not leave the sign.

Also, as Patch reported, Rutgers microbiology professor Michael Chikindas is currently under review by the university for putting Jewish caricatures and cartoons up on his Facebook page. Related: Rutgers Professor Under Review For Anti-Jewish Facebook Posts

"The university is removing the (swastika)," Buccino said. "Such symbols are antithetical to the values of the University, where we strive to create an atmosphere free from bias and to treat people of all backgrounds with dignity and respect."

"This has happened at Rutgers before," Rutgers Hillel Director Andrew Getraer told My Central Jersey. "Every couple of years there's white supremacist flyers distributed around campus. I don't know in this case who did it, but in the past it has always turned out to be a lone individual. And it had little or no impact on anybody else."

Rutgers has indeed been hit by white supremacy groups before, who appear to be trying to recruit on the campus: In February of 2017, white supremacist group American Vanguard put up a poster outside the Rutgers Paul Robeson Cultural Center with the words "Imagine a Muslim-Free America." Related: Muslim Hate Poster Found on Rutgers Campus

"I hope that is the case now, but of course we are seeing a trend in our society where the expression of gross antisemitism and racism and white supremacy is becoming more acceptable in some quarters and this may be a manifestation of that. And that is something that our whole society is wrestling with and it needs to stop," Getraer added.

Top photo of the Identity Evropa fliers found on campus this week taken by Dan Israel/Daily Targum and used with permission by Patch.