Firebombing of an Employee's Home Leaves Brown Shaken

The weekend firebombing of the residence of an Israeli Hillel employee at Brown University has shocked students, faculty, and community members enough to get them to gather and discuss the attack and its aftermath, the Brown Daily Herald reports. Early Saturday morning, two molotov cocktails were thrown at the off-campus apartment of an emissary from the Jewish Agency for Israel, a group that facilitates immigration to Israel.

The police have not arrested a suspect and won't confirm or deny that the attack was motivated by the victim's ethnicity or nationality. The Jewish and Israeli community—local, national, and international—has responded aggressively, offering a $10,000 reward, moving the victim to a secure location, and promising to find the perpetrators of the attack. University officials were similarly outraged: "What we do know is that this was a serious and reprehensible act of violence that affected a member of our community," said Brown's vice president for campus life and student services. "It is important that we acknowledge that and in doing so stand together as a community and repudiate any acts of violence in any place at any time, on our campus or off."