Anti-Semitic act highlights larger issue in Indiana

An anti-Semitic act of vandalism was found Monday on a poster in the offices of the Robert A. and Sandra B. Borns Jewish Studies Program in Goodbody Hall.

The word “Hitler” and a swastika were drawn on the poster in black Magic Marker.

While IU police have responded to the incident and have identified two persons of interest, the vandalism highlights a larger issue in Indiana. The state is one of five in the nation that do not have a law regarding hate crimes and cannot sentence offenders for committing such acts.

“Indiana is lacking in that sense,” said Rabbi Yehoshua Chincholker, director of the Chabad House Jewish Student Center.

The lack of a hate crime statute came into play March 27 when Mark Zacharias pled guilty to criminal mischief for throwing a rock at a glass display case at the Jewish Studies Program office Nov. 30, 2010. He was sentenced to 40 hours of community service.

“It really indicates how desperately we need hate crime legislation,” said Rabbi Sue Laikin Silberberg of the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center. “We’re one of the few states that don’t have it.”

Zacharias, a former scholarship coordinator for Hutton Honors College, was originally charged with institutional criminal mischief, a Class-D felony. But an official from the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office said the charge was lowered to criminal mischief, a Class-B felony, because the institutional mischief law defines a school as K-12.
Monroe Circuit Judge Teresa Harper sentenced Zacharias to six months probation in addition to the community service. He also had to pay $300 in restitution for a theft case that was dismissed.

If Zacharias had been charged with institutional mischief, he could have faced up to a three-year jail sentence.

Currently, no one has been charged with the additional acts of vandalism that occurred around the same time as Zacharias’ act.

On Nov. 23, 2010, members of the Chabad House Jewish Student Center found a rock thrown through a back window of the center. Four other incidents, including the Jewish Studies Program vandalism, took place in the following week.

The incidents shocked IU and Bloomington community members and sparked a campus- and city-wide conversation about hate crimes. But because there is no hate crime statute, whether the community classified the incidents as hate crimes, offenders cannot be charged with committing them.

“You can give it a label if you want, but it’s something we cannot and should not tolerate on campus and in our communities,” said Mark Land, associate vice president of University communications. “It’s the same thing with the anti-Semitic graffiti that we saw on campus this week.”

IU Police Department Chief Keith Cash said in an email that police believe the two suspects are juveniles and not IU students, but until they have completed interviews with the individuals, the incident remains under investigation.

“We’re happy,” Land said. “We’re satisfied that authorities are all taking these things very seriously because we take them very seriously.”

Mary Kenney contributed to this article.