18 | JUNE 17 • 2021 

T

here is a war of words — and paint — 
going on at “The Rock” in Ann Arbor.
Ordinarily, students and locals 
paint The Rock, located just blocks off cam-
pus from the University of Michigan on 
Washtenaw Avenue, with Greek letters for 
their fraternity or sorority, to cheer “Go Blue” 
before a sporting event or declare love for a 
sweetheart as a romantic gesture. Over the 

decades, there have been political messages 
protesting everything from the Vietnam War 
to supporting Black Lives Matter. 
Over weeks that have transpired following 
Hamas’ latest round of violence with Israel, 
The Rock has been painted with the words 
“F*** Israel” and “boycott Israel” and “Israel 
commits genocide,
” along with Palestinian 
flags. The vulgar language was found on the 

side of the rock that faces the Hillel building 
across the street. 
Hillel at the University of Michigan released 
a statement calling the “hateful” slurs “anti-Is-
rael, antisemitic and intended to target our 
Hillel community.
”
“We won’t allow these messages to intimi-
date us,
” the statement continued. “This is not 
a Jewish issue; it is a campus issue in which 
language and vandalism are escalating to 
unacceptable levels of hate and intimidation. 
We are the Leaders and Best. We are better 
than this. 
“We call on our campus partners and lead-
ers to show your support of our Jewish com-
munity and condemn these hateful messages. 
Thank you to the University of Michigan 
administration for condemning the hateful 
messages on The Rock and around campus, 
sending messages of support to our student 
leadership, and making spaces available for 
our students to come to you to report inci-
dents of bias and hate. 
“Love will always overcome hate! We 
encourage our campus community to join us 
in bringing positive messages of community, 
peace and respect to our campus. The answer 
to those who use free speech for their hateful 
messaging against others is more speech. Let’s 
flood our campus and The Rock with messag-
es of love to overcome hate!”

STUDENT TAKES ACTION
At the sight of the hateful messages, U-M 
2019 graduate, professional photographer and 
incoming graduate student at the Ross School 
of Business Samii Stoloff repeatedly painted 
and repainted over the anti-Israel messages. 
She painted over the hate first with blue and 
white paint and stars of David. Come June, 
she decided she would cover the hate with 
love. Her palette of choice: a rainbow in honor 
of Pride month. Hillel donated some cans of 
paint to Stoloff’s work.
“Since mid-May, every hate slur you can 
possibly imagine about Israel was painted 
and then repainted on that rock,
” Stoloff said. 
“The first time, I used blue and white spray 
paint and wrote the words ‘Israel wants peace,
’ 
but because June is Pride month, I just want-
ed to paint a rainbow all over the hatred.
”
As she and a friend painted and covered up 
the anti-Israel messages, she said about 20 dif-
ferent people driving by in cars shouted at her 
asking her why she supports Israel and why 
she hates Palestine. 
“People were shouting accusatory remarks 
at me, but I just told them that I had just 

OUR COMMUNITY

Rock Wars
Student paints over anti-Israel slurs 
left on Ann Arbor landmark.

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

COURTESY OF SAMII STOLOFF

Samii Stoloff painted over anti-
Israel slurs several times.

