The Main of Quad Stanford University in California. Photo Credit: King of Hearts, Wikimedia Commons.

Stanford University on Tuesday launched a new advisory committee on Jewish life as the campus reels from a torrent of antisemitic incidents in recent months.

In April, a swastika was etched into a metal panel of a bathroom, and a student’s mezuzah was desecrated. Weeks earlier, a Jewish student found an image of Hitler and swastikas on their door.

Stanford University president Marc Tessier-Lavigne said the university plans to investigate the incidents with “vigor.”

“We are committed to investigating the appalling acts of antisemitism on campus, providing support for members of our Jewish community who are troubled and fearful because of them, and taking appropriate action against anyone found to be responsible for these acts,” he added.

The committee’s assignments include conducting a campus climate survey of Jewish students, and ensuring the availability of kosher dining and group affinity housing. It will also propose “steps to minimize, eliminate or address antisemitism” on campus.

Chaired by University Ombudsperson Brenda Berlin, it was recommended by a university task force report, published last October, which admitted that the university had limited Jewish enrollment in the mid-twentieth century.

The bombshell report revealed that in 1953 former Stanford director of admissions Rixford Snyder lobbied for discarding Stanford University’s policy of “paying no attention to the race or religion of applicants” after expressing in a memo “concerns about the number of Jewish students.” Snyder specifically noted that two schools, Beverly Hills High School and Fairfax School, had substantial Jewish populations. That fall, enrollments from both significantly decreased to levels “no other schools experienced.” Snyder likely received implicit approval from others in the administration, the report added.

It also noted that during the 1950s and 60s the university denied it was discriminating against Jews, leveraging “the literal definition of quota” to conceal a conspiracy to keep qualified Jewish students off campus. For years after Snyder left his role as director of admissions in 1969, the university boasted about never adopting the Jewish Quotas used by other Ivy League Schools such as Columbia University, Harvard University, and Yale University.

“The historical research presented calls that claim into question,” the university report said. “While there may never have been a formal quota (and Stanford used that technical defense often), we have found clear evidence of anti-Jewish bias in admissions at the highest levels of the university in the early 1950s.”

Other incidents at Stanford include the removal of an Israeli flag from a display of others from across the world and the desecration of a mezuzah belonging to a graduate student. In February, someone graffitied swastikas, the n-word, and “KKK” in a men’s bathroom, and in January, a Stanford University student was photographed reading Adolf Hitler’s memoir, prompting a series of discussions about “its impact on the community.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.