Hate crime a "minor nuisance" when compared to events around the country, Associate Dean says
In discussing the incident, Associate Dean Rabbi Ken Kantor stated that "I think the placing of a swastika on a street sign, when we compare the events going on around the world, makes our little sign quite a minor nuisance rather than comparing it to events that have gone on all around our country and certainly around the world."
Hebrew Union College (HUC) trains both men and women to be rabbis according to Reform Judaism, the largest Jewish movement in the United States. The movement is known for their longstanding commitment to marriage equality, their participation in the Woman of the Wall movement (which advocates for gender equality at Israel's Western Wall and for religious pluralism in the country), and their recent resolution in support of transgender and non-conforming rights.
HUC Cincinnati is the oldest seminary in the United States; the seminary also has other campuses in Los Angeles, New York, and Israel. It is not the only Reform-affiliated building to have been vandalized recently: in November, the primary Reform synagogue in Israel was vandalized and religious leaders received death threats in an incident seemingly connected to the movement's commitment to gender equality and religious pluralism. The incident is assuredly unrelated to the incident at HUC.
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