RINDGE – Police and Franklin Pierce University officials are investigating a number of anti-Semitic pamphlets in residents’ mailboxes along with separate reports of graffiti swastikas in student dorms and a classroom on campus.
Police are unsure if an organized group is responsible for distributing pamphlets into mailboxes in town, but university officials say they have caught at least some of the people responsible for six instances of anti-Semitic graffiti on campus.
Four swastikas have been drawn in the hallways and bathrooms of first-year dorms since the start of the spring term in January. A fifth swastika was found on a wall after a social event, and this week, an anti-Semitic phrase was scribbled on a classroom desk.
University spokesperson Brian Stuart said an investigation determined a disagreement between students became heated and was dealt with “inappropriately.”
“We don’t think its evidence on an underlying climate at the college,” he said. “We do intend to use this to open up, resurrect an ongoing dialogue about what it means to be a member of a liberal arts community.”
One practicing Jew who is both a resident of Rindge and employee of the university spoke out about the hate speech yesterday.
“Being the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, anti-Semitism really bothers me,” said Jon Galed. “It’s not someone trying to be funny, it’s someone who is uneducated, someone who has just been led astray.
“It’s something that every Jew has to live with and be confronted with at one point,” he said. “I want to believe this is just some stupid mistake, I want to believe that, but I don’t know if I can yet.”
The flyers in town mailboxes, which also contain some anti-homosexual language, could be related to the formation of a gay and lesbian club at Conant High School in neighboring Jaffrey, according to Rindge Police Chief Michael Sielicki. He said posters at the school promoting the group have been torn down, and he suspects the flyers are the result of parents getting involved in the fray.
The college students accused of drawing swastikas are being dealt with internally by the school’s judicial system, according to Stuart.
Sielicki said officers are investigating. “As far as the anti-Semitic stuff on campus, we have only heard about if from the students, we haven’t heard anything about it officially from campus safety,” he said.