An unidentified perpetrator twice vandalized the Chabad Jewish Center at Michigan State University (MSU) during the Hanukkah holiday, police said, continuing a pattern of rampant campus antisemitism across the Western world.

According to local reports, the vandal hurled rocks at and defaced the building’s entrance, shattering its glazing. Video footage of the suspect’s second trip to the Chabad center shows the vandal graffitiing the swastika, the emblem of Nazi Germany, next to which he spray-painted a message that said, “He’s back.”

Local law enforcement, primarily the East Lansing Police Department, has requested the public’s help with identifying the culprit, who as of Tuesday he has not been caught.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, MSU president Kevin Guskiewicz called on the campus community to denounce hatred and recognize how such incidents impact the Jewish community.

“The intent was clear, and the impact is palpable,” Guskiewicz said. “For many students, faculty, staff, and families, Chabad serves as a home away from home — a place of worship, community, and cultural connection. Acts such as these reverberate far beyond physical damage, especially for members of the Jewish community who continue to live with the heightened reality of antisemitism.”

He added, “MSU will continue to work in partnership with community leaders to foster an environment grounded in dignity, respect, and safety — especially during moments that test our shared values. As we reflect during this season of light, we reaffirm our commitment to countering hate and supporting one another.”

This is not the first antisemitic incident to target a Jewish cultural center in the state of Michigan in recent months.

In October, a man trespassed the grounds of the Jewish Resource Center, which serves University of Michigan students, and kicked its door while howling antisemitic statements.

“F—k Israel, f—k the Jewish people,” the man — whom multiple reports described as white, “college-age,” and possibly named “Jake” or “Jay” — screamed before running away. He did not damage the property, and he may have been accompanied by as many as two other people, one of whom shouted “no!” when he ran up to the building.

Ann Arbor police offered an unspecified cash reward to anyone who came forward with information which led to the suspect’gs capture, but he remains at large.

Last week, law enforcement in San Francisco, California arrested a man accused of attempting to burn down the San Francisco Hillel (SF Hillel) building, which serves Jewish students at all college campuses in the city. The San Francisco Police Department has since said that the fire was likely caused by an act of arson.

The fire started around 2:00 pm on Dec. 5 at SF Hillel, which is located near the campus of San Francisco State University. Hillel’s “Student Life Team” was inside the building and preparing for the final Shabbat of the semester.

Emergency personnel were called to the scene and extinguished the fire. No injuries were reported. However, Hillel described in a statement that there was “significant damage to the basement and second-floor bathroom, along with most programming materials.” Additionally, “smoke damage” was “pervasive throughout the building and the plumbing was damaged.” The Torahs in the building were safe and unharmed, according to Hillel.

Antisemitism in the US has surged to break “all previous annual records,” according to the latest data released by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in its Audit of Antisemitic Incidents.

The ADL recorded 9,354 antisemitic incidents in 2024 — an average of 25.6 a day — across the US, creating an atmosphere of hate not experienced in the nearly thirty years since the organization began tracking such data in 1979. Incidents of harassment, vandalism, and assault all increased by double digits, and for the first time ever a majority of outrages — 58 percent — were related to the existence of Israel as the world’s only Jewish state.

The Algemeiner parsed the ADL’s data, finding dramatic rises in incidents on college campuses, which saw the largest growth in 2024. The 1,694 incidents tallied by the ADL amounted to an 84 percent increase over the previous year. Additionally, antisemites were emboldened to commit more offenses in public in 2024 than they did in 2023, perpetrating 19 percent more attacks on Jewish people, pro-Israel demonstrators, and businesses perceived as being Jewish-owned or affiliated with Jews.

The FBI earlier this year disclosed similar numbers, showing that even as hate crimes decreased overall, those perpetrated against Jews increased by 5.8 percent in 2024 to 1,938, the largest total recorded in over 30 years of the FBI’s counting them. Jewish American groups have noted that this rise in antisemitic hate crimes, which included 178 assaults, is being experienced by a demographic group which constitutes just 2 percent of the US population.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.