8 | DECEMBER 19 • 2024 J
N

A

nti-Israel antagonists in the 
early hours of Monday, Dec. 
9, vandalized the Huntington 
Woods home of University of Michigan 
Regent Jordan Acker. 
In offering a fully transparent 
account of the event that included pho-
tographs of the damage, Acker wrote 
on his Instagram site that the sound of 
breaking glass woke his oldest of three 
daughters at around 2 a.m. When she 
ran into the bedroom where he and 
his wife were sleeping to wake them, 
he then ran downstairs to find the 
windows of the front of his house were 
shattered and his wife’s car was graffi-
tied. 
The vandals threw mason jars filled 
with urine into the Acker home to 
break the windows. 
His wife’s car was painted with the 
words: “Divest” and “Free Palestine” 
with an upside-down red triangle. 

According to the Anti-Defamation 
League, the inverted red triangle has 
come to signify support for Hamas 
and glorifies its use of violence against 
Jews and Israelis. 
“This is the third time that I — and 
now my family — have been the target 
of these Klan-like tactics,
” he wrote. 
“We all need to call out this cowardly 
act attacking my family and my home 
for what it truly is — terrorism. And 
like we always do in this great nation 
when we’re confronted with terrorism 
— I will not let fear win.
” 
Acker’s home was attacked on May 
15, when a masked protester came to 
his home to deliver a list of demands 
that included that the university divest 
from companies involved with Israel’s 
war in Gaza. 
In June, vandals spray-painted 
obscenities and anti-Israel graffiti 
across the entrance to the Goodman 

Acker law firm in Southfield where 
Acker is a senior partner.
The Huntington Woods Department 
of Public Safety also released a state-
ment that two individuals wearing 
masks and hoods were caught on the 
Ackers’ security camera fleeing the 
scene. The department is urging res-
idents in the neighborhood to check 
surveillance footage and report any 
findings to the Huntington Woods 
Public Safety Department at (248) 541-
1180.

FAMILY IS TERRORIZED 
In an interview with the JN on the eve-
ning of the attack, Acker put it bluntly: 

He and his family were terrorized. He 
said this deeply disturbing behavior can 
be attributed to the groupthink that has 
taken over on the campus, unaddressed 
mental illness, and the “naked antisem-
itism that is constantly pushed on peo-
ple through their social media feeds.
” 
Acker also called out the silence of 
the University of Michigan Faculty 
Senate and the Senate Advisory 
Committee on University Affairs 
(SACUA) when it comes to antisemi-
tism. The body has released numerous 
statements in support of pro-Palestin-
ian activism on campus and called on 
the university to divest from financial 
holdings in companies that invest in 
Israel’s ongoing military campaign in 
Gaza.
“SACUA makes statements about 
Gaza, but fails to mention how this 
semester, a Jewish professor (Marc 
Dollinger) was shouted down and 
asked to leave because he was a Zionist 
as he gave a lecture on Black-Jewish 
relations during the Civil Rights 
Movement,
” Acker said. “They chose 
not to make a statement about that or 
the other times my home or my office 
has been attacked. Those are inten-
tional choices. It is clear that a small 
but loud group of faculty members 
are encouraging the worst behaviors 
of our students.
”
Acker added that he is “extremely 
disappointed” with the U.S. Attorney’s 
Office of Eastern Michigan for not 
being able to uncover one lead on 
these acts of vandalism against him 
as well as the attack this summer on 
the home of President Santa Ono and 
the October vandalism on the Jewish 
Federation building in Bloomfield Hills. 
“They are seen as cases of proper-
ty damage and are not being taken 
seriously enough,
” Acker said. “Five 
months have gone by since my home 
was first attacked and there are still no 
suspects on that. It is very concerning.
” 
Acker said many of his friends and 
colleagues have privately reached out 
to him in support but are hesitant to go 
public about it. 
“There is a monster that has been 
created,
” Acker said. “
And that monster 
is antisemitism. No other regent at 
the University of Michigan has been 

U-M Regent Jordan Acker once again 
hit with antisemitic vandalism.
A Night of Broken Glass

continued on page 10

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

OUR COMMUNITY

PHOTOS COURTESY OF JORDAN ACKER

U-M 
Regent 
Jordan 
Acker

Mrs. Acker’s car was painted with the 
words: “Divest” and “Free Palestine” 
with an upside-down red triangle. 

