Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” an adage recognizable to many. It calls upon humanity to learn from its mistakes to make the future a better, more hospitable place for us all. Unfortunately, we are forgetful creatures.
Jewish students at the University of Wisconsin- Madison were stunned Thursday when a post made by a Jewish student began to circulate on Facebook. The post described an incident that occurred on January twenty-eighth in Sellery Hall in which two students pasted three images of Adolph Hitler and five of Swastikas on a Jewish student’s door.
In a comment on the Facebook post the victim states that what had happened was simply a prank gone wrong and that the perpetrators were not aware of the fact that their actions were anti-Semitic. One might think that our history classes would have conveyed the fact that Adolf Hitler systematically killed over six million Jews during World War II.
Despite this the University found it to be plausible that one could be unaware of how replicating images of a mass murderer of the Jewish people, and the flag that flew over millions in death and concentration camp were not to conjure a glorification of the genocide that happened just under seventy one years ago, and that producing images and pasting them to the door of a Jewish student was in no way meant to portray anti-Semitism. Only after the Facebook post was circulated did Dean of Students Lori Berquam send an e-mail to students on February eighteenth, three weeks following the event, stating that “University Housing and the Division of Student Life responded to this incident immediately, providing support to the targeted students and identifying the perpetrator.
After investigating, we notified the Sellery Hall community via email and organized a discussion and support group, in keeping with the context of the situation and appropriate protocols”.
Berquam also says that “When a bias incident occurs, our first priority is to respond immediately to the community most directly affected. We communicate more broadly as appropriate based on the nature of the incident. All incidents are tracked but not all of them result in a campus-wide notification”. Yet, Jewish students at large, the community most directly affected, were not given information about this incident unless they lived in Sellery Hall.
Students whose backgrounds are targeted in acts of hate have the right to know when it is happening in their communities. Many ponder why the issue was not publicized by the school sooner, as e-mails discussing bias incidents have been sent before. These e-mails are spoken about by professors, discussed over lunch in our dining halls, and they permeate into the campus itself. When we are aware of those around us who are being unfairly targeted or harassed we garner sympathy for each other.
We as a campus community must demand of our administration that all incidents of hate be dealt with in an even-handed manner, and that we hold perpetrators responsible. Thus, we must learn from our collective histories and do our best to begin dialogues about the prejudices that poison our world. As members of a generation where the world has been made smaller and more compassionate by the advent of the car, train, plane, and internet, we have a responsibility to share the messages of those who experience injustices in our world because of the nation they were born in, the religion they practice, their gender, or the color of their skin.
Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel once stated, “To learn means to accept the postulate that life did not begin at my birth. Others have been here before me, and I walk in their footsteps. The books I have read were composed by generations of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, teachers and disciples. I am the sum total of their experiences, their quests. And so are you”.
Caitlin has been heavily involved in the Jewish community both on and off campus. how do you feel about this incident? Email us at opinion@dailycardinal.com.
