Hoax Alert: Hijinks at Hillel (2024)
Recently the ‘Jerusalem Post’ began screaming how a swastika was found drawn at the Hillel Social Room at Loyola University in Chicago on 2nd February 2024.
They shriek that:
‘A swastika was discovered on Friday inside a social space designated for Jewish students at Loyola University Chicago, according to a report by The Chicago Sun-Times. The reprehensible symbol was found drawn in the Hillel Social Room located within the Damen Student Center, sparking immediate concern among students and faculty alike.
The university responded promptly by issuing a campus safety alert and later detailed the incident, which Vice President for Student Development Keith Champagne described as "heinous." In a strong condemnation, Champagne stated, "Loyola University Chicago condemns this hateful act of antisemitism and discrimination absolutely and unequivocally."
According to the Sun-Times, this incident follows the discovery of other "obscene items" in the same room earlier in the week, intensifying the distress within the university's Jewish community. Metro Chicago Hillel at Loyola expressed outrage over these repeated acts of vandalism, highlighting the violation of their community's security and the heightened sense of unsafety among Jewish students on campus.
The university's Office for Equity and Compliance is investigating the vandalism, with a firm commitment expressed by Champagne to combat antisemitism and ensure the safety and support of the Jewish community at Loyola.’ (1)
This all sounds very scary until we notice that the ‘Jerusalem Post’ predictably left out a significant detail in their reporting from the ‘Chicago Sun-Times’, which is:
‘This comes after the university said "obscene items" were found drawn in the same room earlier this week.’ (2)
This is also supported by ABC Chicago (3) and puts a very different spin on the claims made by the jewish students at the Hillel at Loyola university.
The reason this is the case because if jewish students are finding ‘obscene items’ in the Hillel Social Room earlier in the week before a swastika was found then they are likely related and that what we’ve got here is jewish (or maybe non-jewish) students playing pranks one each other: one group left ‘obscene items’ (presumably something like sex toys) in the Hillel Social Room which clearly the jews didn’t really mind but then another group drew a swastika in the Hillel Social Room in response and now it is an ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’.
Just a slight overreaction from Loyola University: don’t you think?
References
(1) https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-785050
(2) https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2024/2/2/24060010/swastika-inside-hillel-room-damen-student-center-loyola-chicago-antisemitism
(3) https://abc7chicago.com/swastika-symbol-loyola-university-chicago/14383710/