The Michigan State University Chabad was vandalized in two attacks last week, with windows smashed with rocks and Nazi swastikas graffitied on its door, according to the Chabad center and the East Lansing Police Department (ELPD).
A vandal repeatedly pelted the MSU Chabad center with rocks at midnight last Tuesday, according to the East Lansing municipality. The Chabad said that the center's reinforced glass windows remained largely intact after the incident, and no one was inside at the time.
The Chabad center was again targeted on Thursday, according to the ELPD, with a suspect spray painting Nazi symbols on the front door of the Jewish facility. The suspect then proceeded to throw more rocks, which the Chabad center said in an Instagram statement resulted in the breaking of another window.
The same vandal was suspected to have committed both acts, according to the ELPD, which is investigating the incidents as possible linked hate crimes. The East Lansing municipality appealed to the public for tips and video recordings of the incident.
Attacks 'deeply unsettling' MSU Jewish center says
The MSU Jewish center said after the second incident that the attacks were "deeply upsetting" but that they would not allow the matter to deter them.
"We are guided by the message of Chanukah: when darkness increases, so must light. Retreat has never been the Jewish response," Rabbi Bentzy & Simi Shemtov said in a statement.
MSU president Kevin Guskiewicz said in a Thursday statement that he was troubled by the incidents near the campus in the wake of last Sunday's Bondi Beach Massacre in Australia.
"Acts such as these reverberate far beyond physical damage, especially for members of the Jewish community who continue to live with the heightened reality of antisemitism," said Guskiewicz. "Michigan State University is a community for all. We unequivocally condemn antisemitism in all its forms, as well as hatred, harassment and violence directed at any individual or group."
Anti-Defamation League Michigan said on X that it was appalled by the attack and was working closely with the Chabad, the university, and law enforcement on the issue. The ADL also noted the event occurred just after the Bondi attack, "underscoring the urgent need for vigilance."