Pennypacker Meets To Discuss Recent Anti-Semitic Graffiti

Residents of Pennypacker Hall met Tuesday night to discuss recent incidents of anti-Semitic graffiti in the Union dormitory.

Several students who were concerned about the defacement of Hillel posters on the dorm bulletin board called the meeting to "raise consciousness" about the problem of ethnic and sexual slurs, Stuart Kirsch '84, an organizer of the meeting, said yesterday.

Several students and proctors spoke at the meeting, noting the need for tolerance and stressing the psychological injury offensive graffiti can cause individuals and "the community", Jeffrey Mendelsohn '84, a student who spoke at the meeting, said yesterday.

Hillel posters were marked with swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti.

Harvard Hillel Rabbi Ben Zion Gold said yesterday that "prejudices are part of the human situation. This is one instance of the widespread prejudice surfacing and hurting many segments of this country."

Gold added that students living in Pennypacker must feel "upset as individuals and as Americans that someone was this hurtful."

Mary S. Holland, a senior advisor for Pennypacker, said yesterday that the students who called the meeting "drew on the strength of the close dormitory community."

Some students said the slurs could have been written by someone who was not a resident of the dormitory.