On Thursday morning, Safety and Security was notified that a swastika — a hate symbol representing antisemitism, genocide and hatred co-opted by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party — had been etched into the dirt on the side of the Green, according to an email sent to the Dartmouth community by the Provost’s Office.
According to the email, the College documented the incident and immediately removed the symbol. The swastika’s discovery comes less than a week after the College commemorated Yom HaShoah — known in English as Holocaust Remembrance Day and observed globally on April 17 and 18 — by reading the names of children killed by Nazis in the Holocaust.
The incident also follows rising antisemitism in the U.S., the email noted. On Sunday, the eve of Yom HaShoah, an individual vandalized a Seattle synagogue with antisemitic messaging, CNN reported. According to a report published by the Anti-Defamation League in March, 2022 saw the most antisemitic incidents since the group started recording in 1979, with a 36% total increase from 2021 and a nearly 50% increase in campus and school incidents.
“Antisemitism has been on the rise in the U.S. and has no place at Dartmouth,” the email stated.
The College has faced antisemitic incidents in the past. In December, Carlos Wilcox — a former member of the Class of 2023 — was charged with vandalizing a menorah on the Green in December 2020. In 1997, the New York Times also published an article discussing Dartmouth’s antisemitic past, pointing to anti-Jewish biases in admissions and on campus in the 20th century.
According to the email, students can reach out to the College Counseling Center, College Chaplain Nancy Vogele at the Tucker Center, Rabbi Moshe Gray and Chani Gray at the Hilary Chana Chabad House and Rabbi Seth Linfield at Dartmouth Hillel for support. Other individuals at Chabad and the Roth Center are also available.
