American Jewish Students ‘Shaken’ by Attack in State with Fast-Rising Antisemitism

“The vandalization of our building has shaken our Jewish student community.”

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

The Cincinnati Police Department (CPD) is searching for two suspects filmed vandalizing the Rose Warner Hillel House (RWHH), which serves Jewish university students in the area.

During the early morning hours of Sunday, December 4, two men walked up to the Jewish center toppling trash bins, shattering spotlights, ravaging plant beds, and hurling dirt at the building.

“The vandalization of our building has shaken our Jewish student community,” RWHH said on Wednesday in an Instagram post. “Jewish students came to the building on Sunday morning with plans to relax and study for finals and found their Hillel had been targeted.”

“For our students, Hillel is a safe space,” the post continued. “It should remain that way always. It breaks my heart that our students’ sense of safety was broken.”

Anyone with knowledge of the incident is being asked to contact CPD investigator Mike Morrissey.

Ohio recorded the 15th most antisemitic incidents in the country in 2021, tallying 50, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) “Audit of Antisemitic Incidents,” which was the highest in the state’s history. Since 2018, antisemitic incidents have increased by 61 percent.

“In 2021, Jews across Ohio, and the nation, had to combat antisemitic incidents,” James Pasch, regional director of the ADL’s Cleveland office, said in April. “There is no more time to waste. As we have seen across the country, from the Tree of Life Synagogue to Poway to Monsey, the stakes are too high to allow anti-Jewish hate to go unchecked in Ohio.”