Early last semester, my boyfriend pledged AEPi here at Berkeley. He'd been anticipating a bid, and on the first night of Rush, I sent him off to their house with a rousing "Go get your bid!" When he returned having received one, we were both understandably excited. I broke out my window marker and wrote "AEPi" in big block letters on his street-facing window and drew a Star of David below it. When his family visited some weeks later and saw the image, they asked, "That's not going to cause any problems is it?"

I was shocked. But then he detailed the story to me of how he carried a can of spray paint with him to cover swastikas that were drawn around his neighborhood in San Diego.

It is not only shameful but terrifying that in the 21st century, Jewish men and women are subject to discrimination and silent threats in the form of hateful graffiti. In the past month, the UC Davis campus has seen a number of hateful messages scrawled on its campus, from "Grout out the Jews" written in The Hillel House's men's bathroom to swastikas sprayed on the side of  UC Davis AEPi's house. It’s disgusting.

The police are investigating the vandalism of the fraternity’s house, but these actions are about a much larger problem than antisemitism on just one campus. It’s only been a few months since AEPi’s chapter at Emory University was vandalized. “A horrific event like this just goes to show that antisemitism is still alive and well in America, and especially on college campuses” said AEPi brother and Berkeley freshman Josh Shanes. “There should be no place in society for those with such archaic views that drawing swastikas, in any sense, is justifiable in their minds.”

These personal prejudices that some ludicrously idiotic people hold in their minds manifest themselves into hate crimes such as these, and it’s sickening. You can say it’s your “opinion” all you want, but when your opinions have attached to them body counts and death tolls, they cease to be valid opinions. If you seriously, in the twenty first century, endorse a mindset that dates back to ancient Rome, I cannot understand how you were intelligent enough to be admitted to an institution like UC Davis.

These attacks are happening in the wake of a huge move by many UC’s away from Israel, like UCLA’s UCSA voting to divest from not only Israel but other foreign powers with alleged “human rights violations.” The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a complicated and polarizing problem, but there is no justification for using hate crimes and fear tactics against groups of opposing parties. Acts like these only further the divide and increase a sense of hostility between negotiating parties.

I could spend this article preaching about how anti-Semites are idiots and how hateful acts only worsen the current Israeli-Palestinian relationship, but it’s a tired talking point. What happened at Davis, and what happens in the form of micro-aggressions nationally and internationally every day, continues to be a problem that’s now, sadly enough, manifesting in our generation. It is a sad and horrifying truth that even with extensive Holocaust education and a seemingly new age of connectivity and understanding, there are still bigots among us that seek to further their prejudiced views and terrorize innocent people. My hope is that someday generational turnover is strong enough to eliminate this hate, but until then, we wait with bated breath, hoping that the vandals are caught and justice is served.