Jewish community members react to recent discovery of swastika drawn on campus

BY LAUREN AZRIN

The Dartmouth Senior Staff

This article was originally published on May 2, 2023.

On April 21, the Provost’s Ofce announced that a swastika had been drawn into the dirt on the side of the Green in a campus-wide email. Safety and Security documented the discovery of the symbol — which is associated with antisemitism and genocide perpetrated by the Nazi party — before removing it immediately, the email stated.

“I want our community to know that this incident was an act of intolerance, which is counter to the principles Dartmouth stands for,” Department of Safety and Security director Keysi Montás wrote in an email statement. The incident came two days after the College commemorated Yom HaShoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day — on April 18 with a daylong reading of the names of children killed by Nazis during the Holocaust. The incident also shortly preceded Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s ofcial remembrance day, on April 25.

“[The timing] did make it more painful, especially because we know the way that the Nazis treated people’s names, and [that their] symbols and demeanor had a signifcant role in subjugating the Jews,” Hillel at Dartmouth Rabbi Seth Linfeld said.

Rabbi Moshe Gray at the Hilary Chana Chabad House added that it was “shocking” to him that a community member would draw a swastika.

“There’s no convenient time for swastikas,” Gray said. “The Nazis exterminated us for six great years… but the timing of this [right after Yom HaShoah] is suspect, to say the least.”

Linfeld said that he does not think Dartmouth is immune to antisemitism, citing both the discovery of the swastika as well as the Dec. 2020 shooting of a menorah on the Green by a former member of the Class of 2023.

According to a 2021 survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League and Hillel International, approximately one-third of Jewish students on college campuses nationwide have experienced antisemitism, most of which goes unreported. In 2022, antisemitic incidents on campuses across the country increased by 41%, which was greater than the increase in general antisemitic incidents, the survey reported.

Linfeld said that the rising rate of antisemitism on college campuses across the U.S.is particularly troubling.

“Jewish college students all over the country are facing frightening levels of antisemitism, a trend that is part of the greater global acceleration in hate we’ve seen for the past decade,” Linfeld said. “Hillel International reported 561 hateful incidents against Jewish students last year alone.”

Still, Linfield said that the College’s inclusive climate and afnity organizations have allowed Jewish students to freely express their identities despite antisemitism.

“At this time of rising antisemitism, Hillel and the College are actively working to safeguard the environment for Jewish students,” he said. Gray added that he felt the College “has come a long way in how they respond to antisemitism,” since its response in 2018 to the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. President Hanlon’s email in response to the shooting did not reference the Jewish community, the attack or its underlying antisemitic motivations, and sparked “outrage” within the Dartmouth community, Gray said.

Peter Mikhlin ’23, the President

BY ISABELLE HAN The Dartmouth Staff

This article was originally published on May 2, 2023.

On April 26, the Concerned Alumni of Dartmouth College hosted a sold-out roundtable discussion titled “Important Conversations Never Had — College COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates: Scientifc, Legal and Ethical Considerations” at the Hanover Inn, followed by a speech from lawyer and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. A Q&A session had originally been scheduled to take place after the panel, but the segment was canceled after Kennedy announced his last-minute appearance at the event, according to Michael Koss, a member of Concerned Alumni of Dartmouth College.

The roundtable discussion featured Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Martin Kulldorf, cardiologist Dr. Asseem Malhotra, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Joel Wallskog, George Washington University law professor Todd Zywicki ’88, clinical trial expert Brook Jackson and Dr. Sandy Reider. The panel was moderated by Kim Witczak, a consumer representative on the FDA Psychopharmacologic Drug Advisory Committee and discussed how the rollout of vaccines had harmful efects on public health.

Geisel microbiology department and immunology professor and chair Dr. David Leib said he attended the event because he hoped to speak up during the Q&A session, which ended up being canceled.

“The event was billed as an important conversation never had,” Leib said. “I guess what was disappointing to me, as an immunologist and as a virologist, was that there was no conversation at all. It was really a monologue, or perhaps a dialogue, among the panelists themselves, without allowing other esteemed experts that were in the room to ask questions and weigh in.”

Kennedy’s speech, which replaced the advertised Q&A, lasted for approximately 30 minutes and focused on the claim that vaccines cause autism in children.

“We have solid proof that they are causing more harm than [good]… that they are killing our children,” Kennedy said. “And yet a thousand colleges in this country still have these [COVID-19 vaccine] mandates.”

Kennedy added that he has met multiple women with children who have intellectual disabilities, which they believe “were caused by vaccines.” He pointed to the statistic that the rate of autism in children has increased as vaccination numbers have also increased.

“In my generation, [the rate of autism] is still one in 10,000,” Kennedy said. “In my kids’ generation, one in 34 kids have the diagnosis.”

According to the National Institutes of Health, while the rate of autism among children has risen since initial estimates in the 1960s, the diagnostic criteria used to classify the disorder has also expanded. The claim that vaccines cause autism has also been disproven, according to the CDC.

Kennedy added that he is not “antivaccine” but skeptical because there is no “placebo-controlled” study that proves that vaccines are safe. However, all vaccines approved for use in the United States are subject to placebo testing, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Immune Monitoring and Flow Optometry Shared Resource director at the Dartmouth Cancer Center Dr. Daniel Mielcarz ’99 Geisel ’10 also attended the event with the hope of participating in the canceled Q&A segment. According to Mielcarz, the messages the panelists delivered were “anti-science and dangerous, anti-public health.”

“I do think that bodily autonomy is an important concept, but I also think that vaccination has been the greatest achievement in human health ever,” Mielcarz said. “With people going after COVID vaccines, it’s undermining the faith in all vaccines, which is very dangerous.”

During the panel, Malhotra stated that the healthcare system has resulted in “misinformed doctors and misinformed and unwittingly harmed patients” who have been misled by biased research. He added that the creation and distribution of the vaccines resulted in a public health disaster.

“In my whole career as a doctor in 20 years, I have never been aware of a pharmacological intervention that has such poor efcacy and such unprecedented harm,” Malhotra said. “So why is this not common knowledge?”

Kuldorf opined on the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, stating that he was afraid of COVID-19 for “ten minutes” but ultimately did not think it was a particularly harmful disease. He added that he believes the pandemic was the “most deadly in history” due to policies protecting those who already had “natural immunity” rather than properly protected high-risk individuals — particularly older, working class individuals.

“We were protecting young adults who are part of the laptop class: generally bankers, lawyers and scientists,” he said. “All the people in the working class were at risk.” Wallskog, a doctor, cited how his education about vaccines and the FDA approval process was “zero.”

“For you to think that your doctors are an educated source for that information — they aren’t,” he said.

Wallskog then discussed “informed consent,” or patients’ rights to make their own medical decisions with an understanding of the associated risks. Wallskog said that when he received the COVID-19 vaccine, a clinic nurse administered his dose within 15 seconds of Wallskog sitting down and did not discuss its efects.

“For me, [informed consent]is about what a reasonable person would want to know,” Wallskog said. “And for me, I had nothing.”

Witczak then asked each member of the panel about their experiences with censorship. Among the panelists, Reider said he was investigated by his medical board for “deviating from what was considered scientifc consensus,” Kulldorf said he was removed from the CDC vaccine board and was suspended from Twitter and Jackson said she was censored by the British Medical Journal.

Witzack concluded the conversation with a question to the panel about whether the panelists saw any “hope for the future,” referring to whether they thought the public would ever reject vaccines. The panelists did not come to a defnite conclusion.

“We are the sound majority,” Witzack said. “We’re up against evil — I think that’s the vocal minority.”

Leib said that although he went to the event with an “open-mind,” he felt very disappointed that the ethe Q&A was canceled.

I was actually kind of shocked that that event was sold out –– I was surprised that this event was permitted on college property,” Leib said. “On the other hand, I also believe in freedom of speech, and that freedom was not aforded to us.”