DPS probes property damage at USC Hillel

A window on the USC Hillel building was shattered sometime between Monday at 9:45 p.m. and Tuesday at 9 a.m., sparking speculation on social media platforms about whether the damage was the result of an antisemitic act. The Department of Public Safety is looking into the incident, but a motive has not yet been determined and the incident has yet to be characterized.

Hillel members discovered the broken window adjacent to the entry door to the building, which stands on the Hoover Pedestrian Mall, Tuesday morning. In a statement to the University’s Jewish community Tuesday afternoon, executive director of USC Hillel Dave Cohn wrote that DPS launched an investigation within a half hour of the building opening, and it remains unclear whether the damage sustained was accidental, an act of indiscriminate vandalism or a targeted attack on the facility.

In a statement to the Daily Trojan, the University confirmed that it is aware of the incident and that DPS is “taking it very seriously.” Any community member with information about the damage should contact DPS. 

The Hillel building has security video monitoring in place, Cohn said in an interview with the Daily Trojan, and the organization will be cooperating fully with DPS. DPS did not provide comment as to the status of the investigation.

Twitter users took to assessing and commenting on the situation Tuesday, with one user writing, “Horrifying – the Hillel Jewish center at @USC has been vandalized.” Another user wrote of the incident, “This is unacceptable. I hope whoever did this is caught and prosecuted.” 

Cohn said that while the motive behind the damage is not yet known, he appreciates the “expressions of concern” USC Hillel has received since the incident.

“It’s perfectly valid in the wake of this type of incident and the sense of vulnerability and jeopardy it creates to see the types of images that were going around on social media — [the incident] isn’t something we take lightly,” Cohn said. “We know that this is a precarious time in the world, one where antisemitism, unfortunately, is an all too real experience phenomenon in the world, and we have every measure of respect for the urgency of addressing it.”

Upon discovering the damage, Cohn said his first concern was ensuring that Hillel would be able to continue operating without disruption. On account of the Hillel professional team and DPS’ quick response, Cohn said, Hillel events took place the same day. 

“It was really heartening to see how as the day continued on Tuesday, we saw students coming to Hillel for meetings, coming to Hillel to socialize and to spend time together,” Cohn said.

USC Hillel president Zach Gordon said he hasn’t felt that students and community members at Hillel feel vulnerable or unsafe since the incident happened. Foot traffic has been normal, he said, and everyone is excited for the organization’s welcome events. 

Gordon, a senior majoring in economics/mathematics and psychology, said he’s not rushing to call any judgements or characterize the incident until DPS releases the results of its investigation.

“We can definitely understand people’s concerns and skepticism about the event, but it’s really tough to start talking about certain positions without more information about the incident, so I think it’s best to wait until the report really gets finalized before action gets taken,” Gordon said.

When Logan Barth, a sophomore majoring in law, history and culture, saw news of the damage on social media, he said he felt “disgusted.” Barth, who served as the freshmen engagement fellow for Fresh Fest — the orientation program for incoming Jewish students — attends Hillel’s Shabbat dinners almost every Friday night. He said he believed what he saw to be vandalism on an important place for USC’s Jewish community. 

“A lot of people consider [Hillel] a safe space they can go to to do their homework, go to Shabbat dinners, so just seeing that it was vandalized, I was just disgusted and sad,” Barth said.

Many Jewish people he knows are talking about the incident, Barth said, because they all frequent the Hillel building. When he heard of it, he said he didn’t want to immediately characterize the incident as an act of antisemitism.

“When you jump to something saying it’s antisemitism, when we don’t really know if it is, it kind of discounts true instances of antisemitism,” Barth said.

He first saw the photos of the incident on the Instagram page @jewishoncampus, in a post that deemed the damage vandalism. The post also referenced the recent Department of Education investigation into antisemitism at USC, which was launched after a complaint filed in 2020 alleged the University mishandled the antisemitism directed toward former student and Undergraduate Student Government vice president Rose Ritch. 

The day the damage was discovered coincided with the release of the Advisory Committee on Jewish Life’s final report, a comprehensive document detailing recommendations for supporting Jewish life and Jewish students at USC. 

“[Tuesday] was an important day that we should be commemorating as an important milestone in how our campus models the way, so I hope that’s something that we’re able to focus on as the as the dust settles and as we work through the process of following up to what took place at Hillel,” Cohn said.