Journalism sophomore Zachary Tennen said he was assaulted in what his family has described as an anti-Semitic hate crime on the 500 block of Spartan Avenue early Sunday morning.

After Zachary Tennen was knocked unconscious at about 1:30 a.m. early Sunday morning at a party, his mouth was stapled shut by an assailant while about 20 individuals watched, Zachary Tennen said in a statement to the East Lansing Police Department.
Zachary Tennen said two college-aged males asked if he was Jewish and when he answered yes, the two men assaulted him.
“They knocked me down really hard … and I assumed someone would help me,” Zachary Tennen said in the statement. “But after some guys at the house basically kicked me out, I had to get a cab.”
His jaw was severely broken in two places during the assault. Zachary Tennen said he took a cab to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing on Sunday to receive immediate treatment for his injury.
“I’m really, really upset in a few ways; First of all it is a terrible experience, physically and also mentally to know someone would do something like this,” he said before his surgery, despite the difficulties for him to talk.
“It almost seemed like they tried to kill me, and to think about that in my brain, physically — it isn’t very pleasant.”
Police were not at the scene of the party, and no one at the party stopped the incident from occurring, he said.
No officers from the East Lansing Police Department would confirm the incident occurred, but Bruce Tennen said he contacted the police and filed a report. Read More