Purim dance 1934

The 1934 Purim dance was an infamous anti-Semitic incident.

In 1934, the Jewish Students Society held a dance to celebrate Purim in John Jay Hall. When the lights went low, a group of fraternity members, apparently inspired by the rise of Adolf Hitler, who had come to power in Germany the previous year, crept onto the balcony above and threw down handfuls of swastikas, shouting "Down with the Jews" and fleeing the scene soon after.

The Jewish Students Society advisor admonished the then-Spectator editor-in-chief Arnold Beichman against publishing a story about the incident, worrying it would be further damaging to Jewish students on campus. Beichman asked “how can we not publish the story, which was seen by hundreds of people at a dance?” and ran the story anyway.