Students, faculty, and others at Georgetown University on March 23, 2025. Photo: ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect.

Georgetown University has identified the person suspected of graffitiing an antisemitic message in a residence hall, an incident that has caused alarm at an institution that was recently scrutinized over its student government’s scheduling a referendum on the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement to take place during the Jewish holiday of Passover.

“The Georgetown University Police Department has identified a suspect in this case and is investigating it as a bias incident and hate crime,” said a statement addressing the incident that was signed by four high-level university officials — excluding interim president Robert Groves. “We strongly condemn antisemitism in all its forms, and this act of hatred has no place in our community.”

It continued, “We stand together with our Jewish community. We recognize the effect that this deeply troubling incident has on our community, including the impacts on individual students and employees.”

The officials added that other incidents of vandalism have been perpetrated on campus in “recent days,” prompting investigations by the institution’s police department. They noted that political disagreement is causing students to devalue one another to the point that they are willing to commit “discriminatory actions” for which there is “never justification.” They encouraged students to refer to the university’s Speech and Expression Policy for guidance on how to engage in civil political expression.

On Thursday, Students Supporting Israel (SSI) Georgetown — a Jewish advocacy group that is fighting to normalize the pro-Israel movement on campus — implored the university to impose a disciplinary measure on the perpetrator of the graffiti that matches the severity of the offense.

“SSI Georgetown is deeply concerned by the antisemitic graffiti recently found on campus — an act of hate that threatens the safety and dignity of Jewish students,” the group said. “We call on the university to hold those responsible accountable and make clear that antisemitism has no place at Georgetown. SSI stands proudly with the Jewish community and all communities that are recipients of hate, and we remain committed to ensuring students can live and express their identity without fear.”

The antisemitic incident comes amid a moment of turbulence at Georgetown University.

Earlier this week, its Student Association (GUSA) rescheduled an anti-Israel referendum after numerous complaints that holding it during Passover would effectively disenfranchise Jewish students by depriving them of a chance to express opposition to the measure at the ballot box.

GUSA said on Monday that it moved the referendum date to acknowledge concerns raised by SSI, as well as Chabad Georgetown, Georgetown Israel Alliance, and the Jewish Student Association.

“We made this decision after hearing concerns about the placement of the election during a religious holiday,” the governing body said in a statement posted on Instagram. “Although the election has been rescheduled, formal campaigners may continue to campaign for the referendum until the end of the campaigning period. Individuals may continue to register as formal campaigners until the end of the campaigning period.”

The referendum must still be contested for other reasons, SSI told The Algemeiner on Tuesday.

“We commend the decision to move the vote past Passover but are still intent on combating the procedural irregularities surrounding the referendum,” the group said, referring to the fact that the resolution only passed because GUSA senators, the campus newspaper reported, “voted to break rules” which require referenda to be evaluated by the Policy and Advocacy Committee (PAC), a period of deliberation which establishes their merit, or lack thereof, for consideration by the senate.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Georgetown University Identifies Suspected Perpetrator of Antisemitic Graffiti first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Graffiti on the walls of Humboldt University in Berlin, where students defaced property with antisemitic slogans during an anti-Israel protest. Photo: Screenshot

German police arrested five students who participated in an anti-Israel protest at Humboldt University in Berlin, where they chanted antisemitic slogans and vandalized school property.

The unruly demonstration came as authorities in Germany continued to work to address the growing surge in antisemitism and pro-Hamas activism across the country.

On Wednesday, a group of students took over several buildings at Humboldt University, a public research university in central Berlin, and staged a demonstration against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. They also called on the state government to halt the deportation of four Hamas sympathizers who participated in raucous anti-Israel protests and, according to German authorities, “pose a threat to public order.”

In the buildings, the students put up banners bearing slogans such as “You are complicit in genocide,” “There is only one state, Palestine 48,” and “Intifada until victory.”

They also defaced university property with banned slogans, including “Zionism is fascism” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which the German government prohibited last year for promoting the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel.

Students held a pro-Palestinian protest at Berlin’s Humboldt University

Police forcibly detained at least 5 demonstrators as security forces moved in to disperse the crowd pic.twitter.com/wQm8Kjz1FW

— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) April 16, 2025

There were also around 40 to 60 people outside the buildings staging a demonstration and chanting slogans such as “Freedom for Palestine,” “Boycott Israel,” “No borders, no deportations,” “Germany is a fascist country,” and “Resistance is an international right.”

After the university administration requested the removal of the protesters, local police intervened and arrested at least five people.

The European Jewish Congress, the representative umbrella organization of European Jewry, condemned the incident, stating that “hate must never be normalized.”

“Such hateful and inflammatory rhetoric fosters an atmosphere where Jewish students feel unsafe, unwelcome, and targeted,” the group wrote in a post on X. “These aren’t just words on a wall, they contribute to a climate of fear and exclusion.”

“Hate must never be normalized. Not in our societies, and not in our universities.”

We are appalled by the antisemitic vandalism at @HumboldtUni, where slogans like “From the river to the sea” and “Zionismus ist Faschismus” were scrawled across university property.

Such hateful and inflammatory rhetoric fosters an atmosphere where Jewish students feel unsafe,… pic.twitter.com/M9s0Y8aaq3

— European Jewish Congress (@eurojewcong) April 17, 2025

Earlier this month, German authorities issued deportation orders for three EU citizens and one US citizen living in Berlin over their participation in several anti-Israel protests.

The four deportees, identified as Hamas sympathizers, have until April 21 to leave the country or risk being forcibly removed.

The German State Office for Immigration issued “residence termination notices” against the four individuals – two Irish citizens, a Polish citizen, and an American citizen – for their participation in pro-Hamas demonstrations, including a sit-in at Berlin’s central train station, a road blockade, and the occupation of a building at the Free University of Berlin (FU).

According to the deportation notice, they “pose a threat to public order” and “indirectly supported” terrorist groups like Hamas.

A spokesperson for the German Senate Department for the Interior announced that an appeal against the decision has been filed with the Supreme Court.

While legal representatives and experts have expressed concerns that the deportation orders violate civil liberties for EU citizens in Germany, as neither individual has been convicted of a criminal offense, German law does not require a conviction for deportation.

Germany has experienced a sharp spike in antisemitism amid the war in Gaza. In just the first six months of 2024 alone, the number of antisemitic incidents in Berlin surpassed the total recorded for the entire previous year, according to Germany’s Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS).

The figures compiled by RIAS were the highest count for a single year since the federally funded body began monitoring antisemitic incidents in 2015, showing the German capital averaged nearly eight anti-Jewish outrages a day from January to June last year.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), police registered 5,154 antisemitic incidents in Germany in 2023, a 95 percent increase compared to the previous year.

The post Five Students Arrested After Unruly Anti-Israel Protest at Berlin University first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

An overturned auto in a car crash flipped on its roof landing on a mother and her three children, killing two children on March 29, 2025, in Brooklyn, New York. The family was crossing the street when the crash happened. Photo: ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect.

A Brooklyn woman was indicted on reckless manslaughter and other charges on Wednesday for a car crash late last month that killed a Jewish mother and her two children who were crossing the street on Shabbat.

Miriam Yarimi, 32, was arraigned on Wednesday by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on an indictment that charged her with multiple counts of second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, second-degree assault, and other related counts. The resident of Midwood, Brooklyn, was ordered held without bail and her next court date is set for June 11. She is facing a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison if convicted for the fatal car accident that took place around 1 pm on March 29.

Yarimi pleaded not guilty during her first in-person court appearance on Wednesday. Earlier this month, she appeared in court virtually from her room in NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, where she was undergoing a psychological evaluation.

“This horrific fatal crash was one of the worst I’ve seen in over 25 years as a prosecutor,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. “It wasn’t an accident. This defendant’s unconscionably dangerous driving wiped out a family. The consequences of her flouting traffic laws and commonsense were disastrous, and we will now seek to hold her fully accountable for this criminally reckless behavior.”

Gonzalez said video surveillance shows Yarimi drove her car through a steady red light a block before the crash, “narrowly avoiding other cars,” before she approached the site of the car accident at the intersection of Ocean Parkway and Quentin Road. Yarimi was also going almost triple the speed limit before she crashed her car into an Uber that was waiting for four Jewish pedestrians to finish crossing the street. When the Jewish family was just “a step or two from the sidewalk,” Yarimi’s car sped through the intersection against the light, smashed into the back of the Uber and plowed through the victims as her car rolled over, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office said. According to evidence obtained from the black box, Yarimi’s car was traveling at about 68 mph – in a 25-mph speed zone – “was at full throttle (suggesting the gas pedal was floored) and zero brake was applied.”

Natasha Saada, 34, and her daughters – eight-year-old Diana and five-year-old Deborah – were killed at the scene. Her four-year-old son Philip suffered serious injuries, including skull fractures and brain bleeding, and also had a kidney removed. He is in a medically induced coma and “is still fighting for his life,” Gonzalez told reporters outside of the courtroom on Wednesday after Yarimi’s indictment was announced. The Uber had five occupants – the Uber driver, a mother, and her three kids – all of whom sustained minor injuries. Yarimi’s car was upside down and had to be cut to get her out. The single mother, who is also Jewish, suffered minor physical injuries.

At the time of the crash, Yarimi was driving with a suspended license. Her car also reportedly had 99 parking and camera violations between August 2023 and March 2025, including 21 speed camera tickets and five red light tickets.

The post Speeding Brooklyn Woman Indicted on Manslaughter for Car Crash That Killed Jewish Mother, Two Daughters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.