The faculty of the Jewish Studies Program at Penn stands in sorrow, outrage, and solidarity, with the families and friends of those Jews whose graves in North Philadelphia were damaged and desecrated. This vile and cowardly act of hatred against Jews is an occasion for all Americans to affirm this country’s fundamental opposition to prejudice and the violence and pain it produces. We as a community, and as Americans devoted to protecting the glories of liberal democracy, demand and expect that this hate crime, and all other hate crimes spreading across our country in this difficult period of our national life, are prosecuted swiftly and effectively so that those who would hurt innocents and endanger our collective life will be brought to justice and exposed as the cowards they are.