Jordan Acker, a University of Michigan regent who is Jewish, said he heard the sound of breaking glass at about 2 a.m. Monday and initially thought one of his children had dropped a glass after fetching a late night drink of water.
“The police rang the doorbell about thirty seconds later, and then I came down to find our window had been smashed," he said.
A vehicle in the driveway of Acker’s Huntington Woods home was also defaced with red paint and the message “Divest, Free Palestine” along with an inverted triangle shape. He credits the exceptionally fast response by law enforcement to a neighbor who was walking his dog near Acker’s home at the time and saw something that prompted him to call police.
Acker said the object thrown through the window of his home is believed to be a mason jar, though he stressed that law enforcement is still in the early stages of investigating the incident. He says police told him it contained some kind of foul smelling substance.
Acker believes he’s being targeted because he’s Jewish. A statement from the university condemned the incident at Acker's home and as “a clear act of antisemitic intimidation,” and “unfortunately, just the latest in a number of incidents where individuals have been harassed because of their work on behalf of the University.”
In June, Acker’s Southfield law office, where he also works as an attorney, was painted with graffiti that read, “Free Palestine,” “Divest Now,” and “U-M kills.” Acker said no criminal charges have yet been filed in that case.
This October 7, the residence of University of Michigan President Santa Ono was tagged with graffiti reading “Intifada” (an Arabic term for the Palestinian uprising against Israel) and “coward.” The home of Erik Lundberg, the university's chief investment officer, was also vandalized.
Since Israel declared war on Hamas and launched an invasion of Gaza following the deadly Hamas attack in Israel last October 7, protesters and student groups have said UM leadership, through the university's investments in companies with ties to Israel, is complicit in civilian deaths in Gaza that have drawn scathing criticism from human rights groups and the United Nations. Students and others have called on the university to divest from any company with connections to Israel, though large-scale protests on campus have subsided.
Regents have said only a small fraction of the university’s endowment may be invested in funds including companies indirectly linked to Israel, and declined to make moves to divest, citing a policy to shield the endowment from political pressures.
Acker suspects the people who vandalized his home are affiliated with the university in some way.
“These incidents, at my home, the president's house, at my office, have all followed a pretty similar pattern, and they’re a group of people you would only go after if you were affiliated or interested in the University of Michigan,” Acker said.
In May, university Regent Mark Bernstein said protesters tacked a list of demands to his and most of his colleagues’ front doors. Bernstein at the time called it a dangerous escalation of on-campus protests. Sarah Hubbard, chair of the Board of Regents, said about 30 protesters put tents and other objects on her front lawn and disrupted an early morning with bullhorns.
Acker believes the off-campus incidents of vandalism involve a small group of hardcore activists.
“There’s not more than a half dozen of these extremists that are engaged in this behavior. It’s not representative of our campus. It’s not representative of our school.”
The upside down triangle that was part of Monday's graffiti is a symbol that has reportedly been seen at numerous pro-Palestinian events globally, and also used to identify military targets in videos released by the military arm of Hamas, according to a report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation citing experts in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
A neighbor’s security camera captured two people in dark colored hooded sweatshirts approaching Acker’s house Monday morning, and a short time later, showed them running the opposite direction, according to a press release from the Huntington Woods Department of Public Safety. According to news reports, the city police were asking other residents to let them know if they have camera footage that could be related to the crime.
Editor's note: The University of Michigan holds Michigan Public's broadcast license.
