Chabad Shliach Calls To Do An Extra Mitzvah After Anti-Semitic Flyers Distributed on College Campus

by CrownHeights.info

Hateful flyers spreading anti-Semitic conspiracies were strewn across University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus Sunday, prompting calls for people to speak out.

“Acts of bigotry can never be ignored,” Rabbi Dovid Tiechtel of Illini Chabad said. “When condemnable words go unanswered, It emboldens the evil and leads to negative actions.”

The incident was reported to campus administrators, who immediately began investigating the incident.

The flyers, which accused the Jewish community for the COVID pandemic, brought outrage and a sense of purpose

What should the response of the Jewish students on the University be? Rabbi Teichtel’s response was twofold.

First you must fight the hatred.

“We have such an opportunity this week. In a few days, the student government will consider bringing the antisemitic BDS movement to Illinois,” he said. “Wherever this hateful measure is considered, Jewish students are targeted. Illini Chabad and it’s student leaders across Campus are committed to once again leading the charge on combatting this hate, along with others, and we encourage you to join us.”

A second response was to do more good.

“While these flyers do not reflect the Illinois leadership and campus community in any way, actions such as these darken our campus somewhat and call for a renewed expression of light since this happened here. As such, we are asking everyone to do an extra good deed to bring more light to our community.”