Anti-Semitic Slurs Found in Columbia Professor’s Office

A professor and her students were left shocked on the campus of Columbia University. Professor Midlarsky walked into her office only to find swastikas and anti-semitic slurs slathered all over her walls with red spray paint.

It was a normal Wednesday around 1:30 p.m. when Midlarsky and her students were heading to her office for a lab meeting. Once she opened her door, which was previously unlocked, she witnessed the horrifying sight. Elizabeth Midlarsky is a clinical psychologist and Holocaust scholar. She said she had no idea who could have done this terrible thing.

“I was shocked, I couldn’t believe it,” Midlarsky said to The Washington Post.

Before this event, professor Midlarsky was living her normal life, and now she walks around campus scared.

“I’m usually not a fearful person, but they got me. I’m afraid,” Midlarsky said.

This ended up causing more fear because of the Holocaust memory fading. Hate against the Jewish community has increased 60% in 2017, according to the anti-defamation league.

Midlarsky called security after the vandalism occurred. The guilty party has not been discovered yet. The question is,when the suspect is found, what should his or her punishment be?

“They should be punished. What they did was messed up,” Fleetwood junior Cailyn Miller said.

“They should at the very least be expelled, if it was a student,” Fleetwood junior Sierra Moyer said.

Events like these don’t just affect those who are personally involved. It can have an effect on others. To many, this situation was scary as well.

“If someone can just easily deface this professor’s office, imagine what else people are capable of,” Moyer said.

“This doesn’t really affect me.  Messed up things happen all the time in the world, and I’ve just learned to accept it,” Fleetwood junior Marc-Anthony Dorestan said.