"I am a Holocaust survivor. On Wednesday afternoon, while NYU graduates and their families gathered in Washington Square Park, which is not far from where I live, for the night before commencement, someone climbed onto the roof of the Steinhardt building and raised a flag. It had the shape of an Israeli flag, with the NYU torch inside the Star of David. Flanking it were two swastikas. It flew above the heads of celebrating families for roughly fifteen minutes before campus safety took it down."
"I am an artist, who believes in free expression. But under no circumstance do I believe that symbols of hate can become something normal. As a proud Jewish woman, hate has no place in the Big Apple. The Steinhardt flag did not appear in a vacuum. It appeared at the end of a year in which on-campus antisemitism at NYU and across this country has been allowed to go unchecked."
"Now, during graduation week and one week before the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, it is clear that NYU and every other college in this city must adopt a policy that requires Holocaust education and tolerance training for all students. Unfortunately, students do need to be reminded that any comparison of Israel to the Holocaust, and any use of the swastika to make a political argument, is not OK."
"It begins with murmurings on campus that, well, put it in context. It begins when graffiti gets painted over without accountability, when a stolen mezuzah becomes a campus footnote, when a swastika scratched into a library wall becomes one more thing to clean up. Now a flag with two swastikas has flown over a building named for a Jewish family on the night before graduation. That is not a string of isolated incidents."
A flag resembling an Israeli flag with a NYU torch inside a Star of David and two swastikas was raised on the roof of the Steinhardt building during NYU graduation week. It flew above families for about fifteen minutes before campus safety removed it. The incident is framed as part of a broader pattern of unchecked antisemitism on campus and across the country. The speaker, a proud Jewish Holocaust survivor and artist, supports free expression but rejects normalizing hate symbols. The speaker calls for NYU and other colleges in the city to adopt policies requiring Holocaust education and tolerance training for all students. Comparisons of Israel to the Holocaust and political use of the swastika are described as unacceptable. The speaker links escalation to earlier campus failures such as unaccountable graffiti, ignored vandalism, and minor incidents that accumulate over time.
Read at www.amny.com
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