About 70 Jewish and non-Jewish students and citizens shared their feelings Tuesday at a forum to discuss the vandalism of the menorah outside the Tannenbaum Chabad house.
Dean of Students Burgwell Howard opened the discussion with a message of support for the Jewish community.
“Northwestern is our community, and the actions of one have impacted us all,” Howard said. “How do we come out of this a little bit stronger?”
Many students speculated that the incident was not a hate crime, but an irresponsible Halloween prank.
“Was this a hate crime or was it drunk college students having fun?” said Camila Benaim, a Weinberg junior and member of the Chabad executive board. “Either way, it’s still not okay to do it.”
Others asked whether the perpetrators were simply ignorant of the meaning of the Jewish menorah, the tenets of Jewish faith or the history of anti-Semitic thought.
Gabrielle Daniels, a Weinberg junior, spoke of anti-Semitic incidents she had experienced in high school and said Northwestern students were often “incredibly surprised” to hear about them.
“When this happened it was really, really upsetting for me,” she said. “I feel like sometimes the Northwestern community doesn’t understand as much what the Jewish community goes through.”
Michael Simon, executive director of Hillel, emphasized the importance of striking a balance between overplaying the incident and brushing it off.
“We want to say this kind of isolated incident doesn’t belong here,” he said.
Students said the university should place greater emphasis on religious diversity through forums like the Essential NU program. Leaders of different faith organizations were also encouraged to reach out and start conversations with one another.
“I like how people felt it was important to reach out to other religious groups,” said Adam Janet, a Weinberg senior and member of the Hillel executive board. “I was glad students were here who weren’t Jewish. That was a plus.”
A number of Jewish students said they were saddened and disappointed by the vandalism, but not threatened.
Weinberg sophomore Sammie Offsay feels “really lucky” to be involved with Northwestern’s Jewish community, and though the incident upsets her, she won’t let it bar her from expressing her faith.
“I would be very careful to pin this as a campus problem,” she said. “I think we do need to recognize how incredibly open Northwestern is to the Jewish community.”