Classy Response to a Hate Crime

By Mordechai Lightstone, Chabad.edu

Shortly before Yom Kippur, Bryan Turkel, a Jewish student in his senior year at Claremont McKenna College—one of a consortium of five undergraduate liberal-arts schools and two graduate schools in Southern California called the Claremont Colleges—found the mezuzah on his doorframe torn down.

The previous week, Turkel’s dorm room had been broken into, and an Israeli flag he had displayed prominently had been stolen.

Rattled by these acts, students contacted campus officials.

The president of Claremont McKenna College, Hiram Chodosh, and the dean of students office immediately issued a letter decrying the incident.

But Joshua Naon, a friend of Turkel’s, felt that something more needed to be done. “This was clear targeting and a hate crime,” he insisted.

So he contacted Andrew Borans, executive director of the international Jewish fraternity AEPi, and suggested that the hateful act serve as impetus to bring change on campus.

“I want to make sure that this Jewish community feels safe,” he wrote to Borans. “I want each brother to have the ability to put up a mezuzah. If anyone tries to rip one down, we will put 30 more up.”

AEPi contacted Chabad on Campus International, and working together with Rabbi Yossi Matusof, Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to the Claremont Colleges, 30 mezuzahs were overnight-mailed to Turkel and his peers.

“We want everyone to know that this is a real issue,” stresses Borans. “Chabad on Campus International and AEPi foundation want our students to know that we will not be bullied by people. Before where there may have only been one or two mezuzahs, now every student has one. That’s the best payback you can have.”

Naon, who is currently working on his master’s degree, says neither he nor any of his friends recall previous such incidents on campus.

According to Matusof, the excitement over the new mezuzahs was palpable among the recipients.

The rabbi, who arrived last year on campus with his wife, Rochel, as co-directors of Chabad Student Center of Claremont, estimates that about 800 Jewish students attend the colleges out of a total student population of 5,500 undergraduates.

“I’ve witnessed unbelievable leadership qualities among the students here,” says Matusof. “Their initiative to bring so many new mezuzahs to campus has impacted not just the 30 students who received them, but the student population as a whole.”