Incident occurred near campus Jewish organizations
Police are investigating a possible crime of “ethnic intimidation” after a Jewish student at the University of Michigan said he was assaulted Sunday, according to a news release.
The 19-year-old male student told officers he was walking along Hill and South Forest streets when a group of men walked up and asked him if he was Jewish, the Ann Arbor Police Department reported.
When the student replied yes, he was assaulted by the group, sustaining minor injuries, police said. The alleged perpetrators fled on foot, according to police.
Chief Andre Anderson said he informed the University of Michigan police, and they are investigating the incident as a potential act of “ethnic intimidation.”
“Our goal is to discuss safety over the next few weeks,” Anderson said. “There is absolutely no place for hate or ethnic intimidation in the City of Ann Arbor.”
Anderson said the department is “committed to vigorously investigating this and other hate-motivated incidents.”
The incident occurred near two campus Jewish organizations, The Jewish Telegraph Agency reports:
The victim in Sunday’s alleged assault was attacked on a stretch of campus that is home to both Michigan Hillel and the Jewish Resource Center, an outpost of the Orthodox student outreach group Olami, as well as some Jewish fraternities and sororities. The Olami center was the site of antisemitic graffiti painted by student athletes last fall, prior to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel; those students later offered a public apology.
Michigan Hillel director Rabbi Davey Rosen wrote in a statement to the community that he was providing an “update that no Hillel director wants to send out,” and that he had been in touch with the university, law enforcement and a Jewish security agency.
“The safety of our students is our highest priority, and we appreciate law enforcement’s quick response. We know this is difficult news to hear especially as we are just beginning the school year,” he wrote.
In a statement Monday, university President Santa Ono urged anyone with information about the alleged attack to contact police.
“We strongly condemn and denounce this act of violence and all antisemitic acts. Antisemitism is in direct conflict with the university’s deeply held values of safety, respect and inclusion and has no place within our community,” Ono said in the statement.
Another incident allegedly targeting a Jewish regent of the public university was reported in June.
The law office of Regent Jordan Acker was vandalized with pro-Palestinian graffiti, including the words “Divest now” and “Divest or f— off” written in red paint across his Southfield office, The College Fix reported at the time.
Acker described the crime as an act of “antisemitism,” noting that he was the only regent targeted and he is Jewish.
The vandalism occurred after the UM Board of Regents refused pro-Palestinian protesters’ demands to divest from companies with connections to Israel.
MORE: Columbia’s fall semester kicks off with vandalism, anti-Israel protest
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