Over the past week, swastikas were found at Lehigh University, and an anti-Israel protest broke out at Bryn Mawr College.
Following a reported assault during a Saturday, April 25, Students for Justice in Palestine demonstration at Bryn Mawr’s Hepburn Teaching Theater, Lehigh University’s Office of Jewish Student Life announced the discovery of swastikas at SouthSide Commons on April 27.
“We deplore this hateful act and are deeply saddened that it has occurred on our Lehigh campus, which is home to over 1,000 Jewish students, faculty and staff,” wrote Rabbi Steve Nathan, the school’s director of Jewish student life, in a Facebook post.
Rabbi Nathan confirmed that Lehigh campus police and university officials are working to identify those responsible for the vandalism.
The Bryn Mawr protest began shortly after 8 a.m. on April 25, when a group of 30 to 40 masked demonstrators gathered outside the Hepburn Teaching Theater. According to a community update from President Wendy Cadge, the aim of the gathering was to disrupt a meeting of the college’s board of trustees.
The situation grew more volatile as demonstrators prevented people from entering or exiting the theater. Cadge reported that the group’s tactics went beyond speech, resulting in a physical assault on one person and several cases of ear injuries caused by the close-range use of bullhorns.
Following several unheeded warnings to clear the area, the Lower Merion Police Department was called to disperse the demonstrators. In her subsequent message to the college community, Cadge maintained that while Bryn Mawr prizes free expression, the morning’s actions crossed the line into prohibited conduct. She emphasized that the school holds a “zero tolerance” policy for physical violence and confirmed that the administration is actively working with law enforcement to identify those involved in the assault.
In response to the vandalism at Lehigh, Rabbi Nathan invited students to gather at the Jewish Student Center on Packer Avenue, which he described as a permanent “safe space” for the community. He emphasized the need for solidarity, stating that the best response to such acts is to “join together as a community to support one another and to celebrate our Jewish identity.” To that end, a coalition of campus groups — including Hillel, Chabad, AEPi and Friends of Israel — will host a communal barbecue this Thursday evening at the Tamerler Courtyard behind the Rauch Business Center.
Following the police intervention at Bryn Mawr, Bryn Mawr’s SJP chapter took to social media to defend the disruption. The group argued that their efforts were necessary to force the college to “divest from the Zionist entity,” characterizing the board’s financial portfolio as being tied to genocide. The post further criticized the administration’s use of law enforcement, calling the police presence an attempt by the college to distance itself from its own alleged “complicity in genocide.”