A man has been charged with stealing and burning a religiously significant object taken from a Jewish home in Bloomington.
Nineteen-year-old IU student Jeremy Chung Ho Park Patzelt faces trial for stealing and burning a mezuzah from a home on the night of Sept. 29. A mezuzah is a ritual object that contains a Hebrew verse from the Torah, traditionally displayed on doorframes.
Patzelt was charged with two counts of criminal mischief, a class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
According to Ryan Pedigo of the Bloomington Police Department, an officer requested a warrant for Patzelt’s arrest, but the Prosecutor’s Office chose to summon him to court.
Patzelt had his initial hearing Nov. 15.
IU has seen several anti-Semitic incidents in the past year, including racist messages posted on an anonymous message board and swastika graffiti.
According to IU Hillel, around 4,000 undergraduate students at IU Bloomington are Jewish; that’s about 10% of the total student body. That’s slightly more than four times the portion of Americans who are Jewish nationwide.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story said multiple mezuzahs were vandalized.
