WE ARE a tight knit group here at the University. A University Guide will be quick to point out the common practice of always greeting people when we walk to and from our classes to highlight the rather genteel Southern atmosphere of Thomas Jefferson's University. For four years we call this place home, and in our time here we forge bonds that last far beyond our academic careers. "The University of Virginia writes her highest degree on the souls of her sons," James Hay Jr. wrote in his famous poem, "The Honor Men." This highlights the fact that what we learn here is more than mere knowledge - we also develop a sense of honor and community that comes from the experience of living on Grounds. When individuals besmirch that honor, they damage this community and forfeit the true meaning of what it means to be a student of the University. This weekend, a group of individuals committed two such actions.
When Keenan Davis returned home Friday night to the Jefferson Society's Room 7 on the Lawn, he found an anti-Semetic message written on the white board outside his door. Then Saturday night, while he was working on his thesis, Davis heard "snickering and someone mentioning a Jewish star" and opened his door to find the Israeli flag hung outside of it missing and two individuals fleeing.\nIt is worth noting that earlier in the month, in what has come to be known as the Itamar Massacre, five members of a Jewish family, including three children, who lived in the West Bank were killed in their sleep. The killings, which were part of a recent uptick in violence in the region, were met with celebrations in the streets of Gaza and indifference here in the United States.
This is not to say that the events here are in any way related to those in the West Bank, but the anti-Semitic actions committed on the Lawn come at an especially harrowing time for the Jewish people here and abroad. They truly show that hate knows no borders and that communities, both in the United States and in Israel, need to exhibit some level of solidarity across ethnic and religious barriers in order to combat intolerance. Anti-Semitism is not a relic of the past, but something with which Jewish students at the University must contend even now.
As has become rather vogue in the wake of crime or discrimination at the University, many will take the initiative to form committees that plan events to discuss the issues that face the student community. This approach, wherein actions seem secondary to mere rhetoric, only addresses half of the issue. Students and faculty may deliberate and converse for a day, maybe even two, and all that will be accomplished is making the issue known to a rather small community that probably is already aware of the atrocities that have taken place.
Rather, when challenged with crimes, discrimination and hate, students need to take substantive action in lieu of simply conversing about these issues that face our University. In light of what has occurred on the Lawn this past weekend, students can take action and show solidarity with their Jewish brethren by participating in events with Hoos for Israel or the Hillel Jewish Center. For example, students can listen to Davis speak April 13 at the Interfaith Vigil of Blessing for President Teresa A. Sullivan's inauguration. As Passover approaches, non-Jewish students also can commemorate the holiday with Jewish organizations and truly experience the customs and culture of the Jewish community. Additionally, students may respond to these anti-Semitic actions, here and abroad, by taking the initiative to show a higher level of consideration and respect towards those of the Jewish faith during this harrowing time. Personally interacting with individuals and participating in their community, even if we do not share their beliefs, can do far more than sternly worded letters and an appearance of earnest concern.
Anti-Semitic actions that take place here at the University not only affect members of the Jewish faith, but the entire student body. They are antithetical to every principle that the University is built upon: honor, scholarship and community. The events of Friday night serve as evidence that we are not insulated from discrimination, ignorance and bigotry even within the idyllic confines of a small town in central Virginia, and that even places deemed sacred, like the Lawn, are vulnerable.
This weekend, "the purple shadows of the lawn" and "the majesty of the colonnades," as Hay described Central Grounds, were tarnished by an ancient hatred. As students, we should not continue to greet the problems that face our peers with indifference, but act in such a way as to prove that we are, in fact, "the honor men" and women of the University.
Pietro Sanitate's column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at p.sanitate@cavalierdaily.com.
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