An unidentified person used a key to carve a swastika and the phrase “Fuck AEPI” in the driver’s side door of Syracuse University senior Jeremy Greenberg, according to a Syracuse Police Department report.

Greenberg, an Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity brother, parked his 2000 Jeep Wrangler between the Gamma Phi Beta sorority and the Delta Tau Delta fraternity on the 800 block of Walnut Avenue on Friday between 8 and 10 p.m.

After picking up a book and spending a couple of hours in Gamma Phi Beta, he came back to the car to find the anti-semitic message on his car door.

Greenberg said he is not sure if it was someone who knew him or a random act. Anyone who knows that AEPi is the national Jewish fraternity could have done this because Greenberg has a license plate holder with the fraternity letters on it.

“I would like to think it was someone I don’t know who saw AEPi around the license plate,” he said.

Greenberg said he has read about anti-semitism around the country, such as people putting swastikas on synagogues, but this hit home.

“It is really surprising to think this would happen at a private institution like SU with a high Jewish population and a diverse student body,” he said. “I would think the level of understanding would be higher.”

Greenberg hopes it is a random, one-time occurrence that never happens again, but he is not sure how likely that is.

“To whomever did this, all you accomplished was giving me a trip to the body shop,” Greenberg said. “You haven’t changed me or my beliefs in the slightest.”

Joshua Lax, a sophomore magazine major and a fellow AEPi bother, agreed with Greenberg about the lack of effect this crime will have upon anyone but the perpetrator.

“It grieves me to see this happening to my brother and as a Jew, to anyone that thinks this accomplishes anything, it will be their undoing,” he said.

Published on February 16, 2003 at 12:00 pm