An act of arson is believed to be done to the University of Delaware’s Chabad Center Tuesday night. When the firefighters arrived, a sweep of the inside was performed to ensure that there was no one inside but immediately ran into numerous unexpected factors such as construction hazards and an unusual building layout, however, no one was harmed. Shortly after the state fire marshal’s office began an investigation and determined it as an act of arson but did not see any evidence of a hate crime. The investigation is ongoing.
Members of the community have started a gofundme page to help rebuild the building that many Jewish students used as a sanctuary away from the rest of the world. The Chabad Center is believed to have suffered more than $75,000 worth of damage and has currently raised $171,000 of their $250,000 goal.
This act of violence has occured in the midst of other numerous hate crimes, including the death of George Floyd. Although it has yet to be concluded that it was an act against the Jewish community, individuals across the world have begun to use their social media platforms to spread the word of this horrific event.
Antisemitism is something that unfortunately continues to be a part of our society. Just recently, a popular brand, Shein, was placed under fire for posting a Swastika necklace on their website. They publicly apologized via instagram and twitter, claiming that it was intended to be sold as a buddist symbol for “prosperity and goodluck”.
Any act against a religion or race is unacceptable in today’s time. I would advise the Chabad Center to use this terrible event as a way to spread awareness of antisemitism that still occurs daily.
It’s the schools responsibility to respond accordingly and properly prosecute the individual responsible for these events. Measures should be put in place on The University of Delware campus to ensure events like this never occur again. Universities across the country should see this as a sign to put in place a crisis plan to deal with events along the same plane.