Middlebury College said it is investigating two antisemitic incidents that occurred on campus this week.
In an email to faculty, staff and students, college officials said the incidents, both of which happened on Wednesday, targeted people associated with the School of Hebrew, one of several summer language programs held at Middlebury. In one case, two unidentified men “shouted an antisemitic phrase” at a student who was using a phone between two campus buildings. In the other, “an antisemitic symbol” was found on a tree near Stewart Hall, a residential building, and “immediately removed.”
“These incidents are deeply troubling, and we are committed to responding appropriately while meeting the needs of our community,” language schools dean and vice president for academic affairs Steven Snyder and vice president for student affairs Smita Ruzicka wrote in their message. “It is important to note that we have no information to suggest any physical safety risks or continuing threat to the community.”
The message said that Middlebury College’s Department of Public Safety was investigating the incidents and asked those with information to reach out.
“We take these matters most seriously and are providing support to students, faculty, and staff affected by these incidents,” a Middlebury spokesperson wrote in an email on Friday. “Middlebury does not tolerate discrimination, including antisemitism.”
Last year, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights included Middlebury on a list of 60 colleges and universities it said were responsible for “antisemitic discrimination and harassment.” The announcement came after a 2024 complaint against the college by the StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice spurred the feds to launch a Title VI investigation.
The complaint alleges that Jewish students at Middlebury have experienced a “pervasively hostile campus climate” since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and were “met with unlawful and disparate treatment by the administration; retaliatory disciplinary proceedings; administrative denial that antisemitism exists; hostility; instructions to Jewish students to downplay and hide symbols associated with their Jewish identity; and outright failure by the administration to enforce their own policies to protect Jews.” That investigation is still pending, according to the Office for Civil Right’s website. The college has nothing new to report regarding the investigation, the college spokesperson said.
The most recent Middlebury incidents come amid other reports of antisemitism in Vermont. In June, Steven Polli, owner of Polli Construction, contacted the Hinesburg police after receiving threatening messages on Facebook from 20-year-old Barre resident Chris Locarno, a stranger who had friended him days before. One message used an antisemitic slur to refer to Polli and said it was “Jew hunting season.” Locarno is facing a criminal charge of disturbing the peace by phone or electronic means with a hate crime enhancement. He pleaded not guilty in Vermont Superior Court on Thursday.
Polli said in an interview that the messages came in response to a post he made on Facebook stating that he flies the Israeli flag at his home and his South Burlington office.
Polli said he saw the incident as indicative of antisemitic sentiment that seems to have grown more prevalent in the U.S. in recent years.
In May, a personal-training business in Cavendish with Israeli flags hanging in its windows was defaced with spray-painted messages that said “Free Palestine” and a profanity referring to Israel. The vandal later turned himself in and the business owner, Denise Gebroe, wrote in an op-ed in VTDigger that he had apologized to her and she didn’t want him to face criminal punishment.
Colin Flanders contributed reporting.
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