The Chi Alpha Chapter at UC Berkeley was recently vandalized with anti-Semitic grafiti. At the right, is a photos of the clean-up of the deck, which was then repainted. More photos of the vandalism and the clean-up can be seen here. The Daily Cal, the school newspaper, had an article about the incident, that began:

A Jewish fraternity on campus was the target of ethnically based vandalism when a racial epithet was painted on the house’s deck Sunday night, fraternity officials said.

The term “kike,” a racial slur against Jewish people, was painted in white on the deck of Alpha Epsilon Pi and was discovered by one of the fraternity’s members Monday morning, according to fraternity officials.

The last major anti-Semitic incident in Berkeley was in 2002 when a cinder block was thrown through a window at the campus Hillel.

The President of the Jewish Student Union responded to the incident by writing a letter to the Daily Cal, which read in part,

This defacement transcends mere petty crime; it indicates an intolerance that is supremely disappointing to see on this campus.

The fraternity house and the Hillel building are the two most Jewish-related buildings near campus. To have one of them be the target of such an act really points not only to a crime against the brothers of the fraternity but also against the larger Jewish community.

The students here at Berkeley pride themselves on their diversity. Differences are celebrated here.

It is therefore all the more terrible and frightening to know that someone, perhaps someone from within our community, has so failed to understand what makes this campus great.

Berkeley teaches us to embrace those we might not otherwise have come into contact with. Someone missed this lesson.