On Saturday, swastikas were found painted on the doors of four dorm rooms at The New School in Manhattan.
Sam Lichtenstein, 20, said she began to cry when she saw the anti-Semitic symbolism drawn on her door’s whiteboard.
“It was just heartbreaking,” she said of the ordeal she and her three Jewish roommates had to deal with at the Manhattan university’s Kerrey Hall.
“This is something you read about happening in other areas, and it’s crazy to have it happen in such a progressive city, and a progressive university. This was not just an apartment building. This was student housing.
— Quentin Tarantino: Confederate flag is the ‘American swastika’ —
“We’re just overwhelmed and sad,” she said.
One of Lichtenstein’s roommates says she is in “utter shock.”
“I looked over to my girlfriend and was sick to my stomach. I (couldn’t) believe what was happening,” added Jessica W., 20, of Philadelphia.
“There were a lot of questions. Do I have to fear that someone is watching me? How does somebody know that I’m gay?”
Lichtenstein tweeted a picture of the swastika, which prompted The New School President David Van Zandt to immediately denounce the actions of the vandals.
“Abhorrent. This is against every value of @TheNewSchool,” Van Zandt tweeted. “We are taking immediate and appropriate action.”
Van Zandt released a statement to the campus in which he stated that four separate dorm doors were vandalized with “a symbol intended to threaten and express hatred toward some of our students because of their identities.”
“We take any such instance seriously, investigate swiftly, and take appropriate action to ensure the security and safety of all our students,” Van Zandt went on.
Mayor de Blasio has also spoken out about the incident.
“Hate speech is reprehensible, and has no place in NYC,” de Blasio said. “To the affected, we stand with you. To the perpetrators, we are better than this.”