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I 

am the granddaughter of 
a Holocaust survivor. At 8 
years old, my grandfather 
was hiding in the woods for 
more than two years 
with his brother, 
who was 18. The 
rest of their family 
perished. To this 
day, my grandfather 
speaks about his 
story of survival in 
order to educate 
others. Through his 
story, I’
ve learned 
the value of stand-
ing up for my beliefs 
as well as the impor-
tance of education. 
My grandfather always ends 
his speech by saying, “You 
cannot be a bystander.
” These 
words have resonated with me, 
and after experiencing blatant 
anti-Semitism on campus, 
I knew I could not just be a 
bystander. 
This past semester, as I 
moved into my apartment at 
Michigan State University in 
East Lansing, one of the things 

I was most excited to do was to 
hang a mezuzah, a blessing of 
the home, on my doorpost. 
Growing up, I was taught 
about the importance 
of Judaism and how 
I should feel proud 
to be a Jew, so hang-
ing up a mezuzah 
was natural for me. 
However, a couple 
weeks later, I came 
back to my apartment 
to find my mezuzah 
ripped off my door-
post and stolen. 
At first, I was 
unsure of how to 
react. Was I supposed to be 
scared? Maybe this was a joke? 
But then I realized that this was 
intentional, and I had to act. 
The first thing I did was ask 
the apartment manager to check 
the video footage to identify 
the perpetrator. Then I filed a 
police report, a draining process 
that took many weeks of follow 
up to keep the investigation 
moving forward. The apartment 
manager eventually located 

the footage, which required 
reviewing multiple cameras 
over the course of more weeks. 
After quite some time and well 
into the middle of the semester, 
the case was finally delivered 
to the detective bureau, which 
reviewed the footage, conducted 
interviews within my apart-
ment complex and identified a 
male student at Michigan State 
University as the suspect. The 
semester drew to a close, and I 
had to decide whether to pursue 
criminal charges against the 
suspect.
I felt similarly to my grand-
father about the power of edu-
cation and decided to pursue a 
rehabilitative route instead of 
the criminal justice system. I set 
up a meeting with MSU’
s Hillel 
director, the Chabad rabbi, the 
suspect and me. Meeting face-
to-face with the perpetrator, I 
told him how his actions had 
not only impacted me but also 
the greater Jewish community 
at MSU, as someone else in my 
apartment building took their 
mezuzah down out of fear. 
I then asked if he would be 
willing to take a guided tour of 
the Holocaust Memorial Center 
in Farmington Hills and, upon 

his return, write a reflection 
about what he learned. He 
immediately agreed to take the 
educational route and toured 
the museum a few weeks later. 
He also compensated me for the 
cost of my vandalized and stolen 
mezuzah. While he never sent 
me his written reflections, my 
hope is that through this pro-
cess, he understands the impact 
and hurt his actions caused. 
This experience also taught 
me the importance of commu-
nity. I am grateful to the East 
Lansing Police Department, 
MSU Hillel and MSU Chabad 
Student Center as well as to the 
team at StandWithUs. 
I am also delighted to share 
that I have since hung a new 
mezuzah on my doorpost and 
am prouder than ever to show-
case my Judaism to the world. I 
hope that my story can inspire 
others to stand up and speak 
out. 

Maddy Gun is the StandWithUs 
Emerson Fellow at Michigan State 
University. She shared her story in 
front of 550 student and community 
attendees at the StandWithUs “Israel in 
Focus” International Conference Jan. 
17-19 in Los Angeles.

COURTESY OF STANDWITHUS

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How to reach us see page 10

essay
On Our Doorposts

MADDY GUN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Maddy Gun displays her 
new mezuzah.

