Anti-Semitic fliers found at UIC for second time in days
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SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE - Anti-Semitic fliers were found in UIC’s campus library Saturday, the second time such literature has been found in a campus building in less than a week.
Fliers denying the Holocaust, accusing Jews of receiving preferential treatment at colleges and universities and comparing the Gaza Strip to the Auschwitz concentration camp were found in the university’s Richard J. Daley Library, according to Eva Zeltser, a communications student and president of Rohr Chabad, a Jewish student organization at UIC.
About 100 fliers were found in the same library and other campus buildings on Tuesday, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
Zeltser said she emailed the school’s administration Saturday afternoon about the new fliers but had not heard back as of 4:30 p.m. The university did not immediately provide comment on or confirm the existence of the new fliers Saturday afternoon.
The newest fliers bear a strong resemblance to the one that was distributed Tuesday, using the same font and touching on similar themes.
The newest fliers include “#BlackLivesMatter,” “#WeAreAllMuslim” and “#StandWithPalestine.”
“I think it’s the same group or person who did this,” Zeltser added.
At least two of the fliers appear to contradict each other.
One flier found Saturday denies the existence of the Holocaust, while another compares the Gaza Strip to Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp used during the Holocaust.
Since the first fliers were distributed, Zeltser said she has received death threats, with people contacting her on Facebook and “telling me that they are going to put me on a list for extermination and that the Holocaust never happened, but it will this time.”
After the first fliers were found on campus Tuesday, UIC said in an email to students and faculty that such actions “will not be tolerated on our campus.”
“Such actions do not reflect the values we hold as a community,” the statement said. “As we investigate this recent event, we strongly encourage all members of our university to exercise their right to free speech in a manner that recognizes these principles and avoids prejudice or stereotypes.”
Saturday, Zeltser cast doubt on the email’s effectiveness.
“At this point, an email clearly did not do anything to fend these people off,” Zeltser said.
A window was smashed and swastika stickers were placed on the door of a downtown synagogue in January. Bomb threats were called into the Jewish Community Center in Hyde Park in February and the Jewish Day School in Edgewater in early March.