A gray swastika spray-painted on a UF fraternity house last year made national news this week when the Anti-Defamation League released its 2009 Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents.
The league listed the UF incident alongside other acts of vandalism around the country, including rocks thrown through a synagogue's window, KKK graffiti discovered in a synagogue's parking lot after Passover and a burning cross placed inside a Jewish education center.
Members of the traditionally Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi discovered the swastika on April 2, 2009 and reported the incident to University Police on April 5, according to Alligator archives. At nearly 8,000 Jewish students, UF has one the highest Jewish enrollment rates in the nation, according to UF Hillel.
The report, released on July 27, found that the number of anti-Semitic incidents in 2009 remained at a "sustained and troubling" level for both the United States and Florida, even with the total number incidents decreasing from 1,352 to 1,211.
The audit separates acts of anti-Semitism into three categories: physical assaults, vandalism and harassment.
Florida had a total of 90 incidents in 2009, down from 122 last year. Harassment accounted for 63. There were 24 cases of vandalism and 3 physical assaults, according to the audit. In 2008, there were 71 cases of harassment and 46 cases of vandalism in Florida, according to 2008 audit. The League also found an increase in anti-Semitism online.
