This week, an arsonist torched the Chabad centre for Jewish Life at the University of Delaware, which regularly provides educational and recreational services for hundreds of Jewish students, as well as a ‘home away from home’, as it’s students described it. Chabad is one of the largest movements of Orthodox Hasidic Jews, and with Jewish students making up a relatively large minority of the University's student body, this unexpected and damaging attack holds huge significance. In a move widely criticised by Jews and Jewish allies, fire marshals have stopped short of labelling the arson a hate crime, despite the attack seemingly following a trend, with another Chabad Centre, located in Portland, damaged in a fire previously, on August 19th.
Luckily, no one was inside the building at the time and there were no injuries, a paper reported. However, the fire has caused around $200,000 in damages (initially underestimated to be only $75,000).
In a statement issued to multiple outlets, Newark Mayor Jerry Clifton called the arson “a sickening act of hostility that threatens the safety and security of our inclusive, welcoming neighborhoods.”
“My thoughts are with the Jewish community and those affected by this tragedy,” he said. “I have faith that the Newark Police Department and partner agencies will work tirelessly to identify the individual or individuals responsible and bring them to justice.”
A GoFundMe has been set up to fund the rebuilding efforts (link under ‘Antisemitism’ in bio). As the students who organised it have put it, the generosity of donors ‘is what happens when the entire community comes together with a powerful surge of love, support, and togetherness’, in order to replace the centre which ‘could tell so many tales about Jewish connection and community…with walls that held over twenty years of memories, life and laughter’.
Written by Noah Mitchell
Artwork by Aurora Brooks
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