Support Of Israel Reason House Was Tagged With Swastikas, Frat Says
DAVIS (CBS13) – On Saturday morning – the holiest day of the week for Jews – swastikas spray painted in red on their Jewish frat house were the last thing these brothers expected to wake up to.
"I'm a freshman so I've never had to deal with such outward show of hate towards me and my people," Itai Ofir said.
Ofir and his Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi call it anti-Semitism at its worst.
"I mean, you can see throughout history many Arab countries have tried to take down Israel," Nir Voloshin said.
Pro-Israel students say they feared recent events would lead to this.
"This week is sort of a bad week to be Jewish on campus," said Nathaniel Bernhart, vice president of AEPI.
"So this is not out of the blue. We're pretty sure this is directly related," said Joshua Wortsman, the fraternity's president-elect.
After years of heated meetings, the UC Davis student body senate passed a resolution Thursday urging the school to stop all involvement with companies that support Israel.
I've never had to deal with such an outward show of hate towards me and my people.
--Itai Ofir, Alpha Epsilon Pi brother
Davis is no stranger to hate crimes. In 2010, the college sign was covered in swastikas.
Days later, a swastika was painted on a Jewish student's door room.
And offensive homophobic graffiti was scrawled on the campus center for gay and lesbian students.
In 2012, a noose was found hanging from a football goal post.
Less than a month later, a swastika was burned into a picnic table at a Davis junior high school, and another was found on a bike trail.
The list goes on – and so does life for these brothers.
"A lot of people don't like us, but we've always come out stronger," Voloshin said.
Other college campuses across the country have also been targeted with similar hate crimes in the past.
So far, police say they have few leads.