Someone knows who sprayed a swastika on Cal Poly’s Jewish fraternity. Reveal them

It would be extremely satisfying to see those responsible for defacing a Cal Poly Jewish fraternity house with anti-Semitic graffiti caught and appropriately punished.

Yet we may never know who’s responsible.

Police, who had no solid leads as of Monday, are asking for help from anyone who knows something about the incident that occurred early Saturday morning at the off-campus fraternity house.

We join in strongly urging anyone with information to step forward.

This wasn’t vandalism — that’s too soft a word.

It was a hate crime, and even though the swastika and other ugly graffiti can be removed, it’s not going to be forgotten by the young men who saw their fraternity house desecrated.

And here’s more of the awful truth.

While spray painting swastikas outside a Jewish fraternity house is one of the more overt acts of anti-Semitism to occur in San Luis Obispo, at least in recent years, it’s not an isolated incident.

“In the past we have had other suspect activity ...” said Darren Deutsch, who serves as philanthropy chair for the Alpha Epsilon Pi chapter at Cal Poly. “It’s one of the things we deal with in the Jewish community.”

Recently, a group of young people walking past the house called out, “Look, it’s the Jewish motherf------,” Deutsch said.

Several months ago, security cameras mounted outside the house were stolen, Deutsch added, which is why there is no recording of the weekend hate crime.

Fraternity members made the awful discovery when they stepped outside on Saturday morning.

“I was mortified,” said Deutsch. “It was horrible to walk out of my residence and see this on my own doorstep. It’s a brutal, brutal wake-up call to know this is something that goes on. ...”

And it’s going on to a greater degree.

The Anti-Defamation League reported a 12% year-over-year rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the United States in 2019, with more than 2,100 acts of assault, vandalism and harassment reported; there was a 56% increase in assaults, including five deaths.

According to a California Department of Justice report, anti-Jewish “bias events” increased by nearly 12% in 2019, though overall, hate crimes went down.

So what can we do?

“When hate is directed at any group, one of the most important ways people can respond is to condemn such treatment of their neighbors, and acknowledge that bigotry against any group affects the entire community,” said Carly Gammill, director of the Los Angeles-based StandWithUs Center for Combating Antisemitism.

“They can also support the targeted group in practical ways, such as cleanup and repairs when necessary. Another way is to help is to cooperate fully with the police investigation and provide information leading to the capture of the perpetrators.”

Awareness campaign raises more than $20,000

San Luis Obispo residents are stepping up.

After the vandalism, Deutsch launched a GoFundMe campaign with a modest goal: Raise $1,300 to remove the graffiti and buy new security cameras.

By Tuesday morning, over 500 donors had contributed more than $20,000, in amounts ranging from $5 to $500.

A handful of donors left messages.

“When others choose ignorance and hate, I invite us to choose understanding and love. In doing so, we will expose hate’s self-defeating nature AND transform the world,” wrote Jason Sisk-Provencio, pastor at the San Luis Obispo United Church of Christ.

“Anti-Semitism is pure poison,” wrote SLO City Councilwoman Jan Marx. “My heart goes out to the students who suffered this hateful attack.”

The national Alpha Epsilon Pi Foundation offered to cover the $1,300 cost of the cleanup and the installation of security cameras.

So, the Cal Poly chapter has decided all of the money raised in the GoFundMe campaign will go toward anti-Semitism awareness. It will be split between two extremely worthy organizations: the JCC-Federation of San Luis Obispo and Yad Vashem, the world Holocaust remembrance center.

That’s excellent.

Chapter president speaks out

Yet as heartening as that support is, it doesn’t erase what happened.

“As much as I would like to just chalk this up to some joke, or some practical prank here, this is a hate crime,” fraternity president Noah Matlof told Tribune reporter Mackenzie Shuman.

“The swastika, obviously, is a symbol of the Holocaust. And you know, taking 6 million Jews’ lives and putting that specifically on our doorstep, and not just randomly on a building somewhere, was not taken lightly by us. It was shocking.”

It’s especially disturbing that another hate incident has been linked to Cal Poly, given the events of the past few years. Those included students wearing blackface, holding parties with racist themes and posting racist messages on a free speech wall.

But without knowing who the perpetrators are — and again, that’s something we may never find out — it’s unfair to assume these were Cal Poly students, or any students, for that matter.

And we can only speculate on what they were trying to do.

Shame the students living there?

They ended up shaming only themselves.

Scare them off?

It didn’t work.

Make this group of students feel like they aren’t welcome here?

That’s so not true.

We know the majority of residents in San Luis Obispo County are appalled by acts of anti-Semitism.

Unfortunately, even one obscene, very public act by a few individuals draws attention and is a mark against the entire community.

It’s up to us to drown out that message of hate by doing exactly what StandWithUs advises: Condemn this mistreatment of our neighbors, acknowledge that bigotry affects all of us and take whatever practical steps we can to help.

To report information about this incident, contact police at 805-781-7312 or make an online report at bit.ly/2Lwe3ze.

To contribute to Alpha Epsilon Pi’s anti-Semitism awareness campaign, go to www.gofundme.com/f/alpha-epsilon-pi-slo-antisemitism-awareness.

This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 10:56 AM.