(Jewish Group) Responding to Rise in Campus Anti-Semitism
For Jewish students at the University of Delaware, the fall semester was preceded by heightened anxiety and worries about returning to campus. Not because of the coronavirus pandemic, but because two weeks ago an arsonist set fire to the universitys Chabad Center, which many students considered a home away from home and a safe space to celebrate their Jewish identity and culture.
Talia Feldman, a senior and student leader in the universitys Hillel and Chabad organizations, said she was shocked and confused to learn on the morning of Aug. 26 that the center had been destroyed by fire overnight. Feldman said she thought about the hundreds of hours she had spent hanging out, attending meetings and having meals or Shabbat dinner every Friday evening in the small blue house in Newark.
I definitely have a lot of memories in that house, and its really crazy for me that its gone, she said.
While both Hillel and Chabad have centers on campuses across the country, Chabad is based around more traditional religious and cultural aspects of Judaism, while Hillel is more of a social organization for Jewish students that also incorporates religion and culture.
Officials said the fire at the Chabad Center at Delaware caused an estimated $200,000 in damage but that there is currently no indication it was a hate crime, according to a press release from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Baltimore Field Division, which is investigating the incident. Donna Schwartz, executive director of UD Hillel, said whether or not the fire is officially determined to be an act of anti-Semitism, it feels like one to the Jewish community.
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