PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — An investigation is underway after an antisemitic note was found at the Brown RISD Hillel over the weekend, according to the organization’s staff.
The note was left in the reception area of the Weiner Center and discovered by staff on Sunday afternoon.
Rabbi Josh Bolton said in an email to the community that they took immediate steps to alert Brown Public Safety and Providence police.
“I personally came to campus and met with detectives who opened an investigation into the incident,” Bolton wrote. “The investigation remains ongoing.”
Bolton said officers took steps to secure the Weiner Center and determined there is no current threat to Jewish students on campus. It opened as normal on Monday.
“While BRH takes any expression of antisemitism very seriously, we will not allow an incident like this to divert our focus from our core mission of building a flourishing Jewish community, and supporting the growth of Jewish students on College Hill,” he added.
The Brown RISD Hillel is the center for Jewish life at both Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design.
“Any act of religious intolerance, including anti-Semitism, is entirely unacceptable and a direct affront to the ideals of inclusion and sense of belonging that are essential to the Brown community,” Brown University spokesperson Brian Clark said in an emailed statement. “We remain resolved in our collective, campus-wide effort to ensure a community where all individuals feel safe and valued and where the value of religious tolerance is upheld.”
