Chancellor, Jewish fraternity respond to anti-Semitic incident
Anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi fliers were recently found distributed throughout campus, according to a message from UC Davis Chancellor Gary May posted on the university’s website on Sept. 23. This incident comes less than a year after anti-Semitic fliers credited to the neo-Nazi organization The Daily Stormer were found posted throughout campus last October.
“Campus police have been notified and are investigating,” May’s message states, adding his condemnation of the fliers and saying that the university is “sickened that any person or group would invest any time in such cowardly acts of hate and intimidation.”
The fliers were found posted around 4 p.m. in Mrak Hall and the Mathematical Sciences building, campus spokesman Andy Fell told The Sacramento Bee.
Asa Jungreis, the president of the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi at UC Davis and a third-year community and regional development and sustainable agriculture and food systems double major, responded to the anti-Semitic incident in an email statement sent on behalf of AEPi.
“As members of the Jewish community at UC Davis, we are deeply saddened and angered that neo-Nazi and white supremacy flyers were found on campus on September 23rd,” AEPi’s statement reads. “We fully condemn this cowardly act of hiding hateful rhetoric and intolerance behind anonymous flyers left around campus. No community at our university should have to contend with this form of virulent bigotry, particularly as many Aggies are beginning their college careers this month.”
Last October, fliers posted throughout campus and credited to a local division of the neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer depicted then recently-confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh surrounded by politicians and individuals — including a likeness of California Senator Dianne Feinstein and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who are both Jewish — with Stars of David on their foreheads. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her, is depicted with the words “Good Goy” written on her forehead.
“Every time some anti-white, anti-American, anti-freedom event takes place, you look at it, and it’s Jews behind it,” the flier states in large, bold type.
In 2017, a sermon “calling for the annihilation of Jews” was given at the Islamic Center of Davis; in 2016, campus printers received anti-Semitic fliers from The Daily Stormer; also in 2016, UC Davis received a ranking in a list of universities with higher incidents of anti-Semitism and in 2015, swastikas were spray painted on the AEPi house in Davis.
Following the posting of the anti-Semitic fliers last October, a group of Jewish student leaders met with Chancellor May to discuss ways in which the university could proactively address the issue of anti-Semitism on campus. This meeting resulted in an agreement on the university’s part that it would host a town hall allowing students to voice concerns as well as a series of workshops for students and staff led by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
Two workshops focused on combating anti-Semitism on campus were held in November and February, but both were expressly unaffiliated with the UC Davis administration.
To date, university officials, including the chancellor, have not hosted a town hall nor any workshops targeting anti-Semitism.
“Acts of vandalism against any ethnic or religious communities on campus have no place at our university,” AEPi’s statement reads. “In the coming year, we hope that student groups across campus will find ways to come together and demonstrate a united front against antisemitism, racism and all forms of hate and bigotry on the UC Davis campus.”
May’s statement listed support services for students and faculty, including Student Health and Counseling Services and the Academic and Staff Assistance Program.
Written by: Rebecca Bihn-Wallace — campus@theaggie.org
Managing editor Hannah Holzer also contributed to this report.
I’m wondering why, considering that the fliers were from a white nationalist group that didn’t only target Jewish people but non-white people as a whole, other groups are not mentioned here or in the other article written about the fliers. Were other groups contacted? The BSU? The MSA? The LGBTQIA+ Resource Center? Because they have also been actively targeted by this group (who has also been fliering here since before Milo Yiannopoulos was invited to campus in the Winter of 2017).
To be clear, I’m not asking for the silencing of anti-Semitism, I’m asking why these fliers aren’t being talked about as part of a larger white nationalist recruitment and it’s effects on multiply-marginalized people (including, for example, Black Jewish folks).