Updated Nov. 29, 2018, at 1:39 p.m. 
 
 The office of Jewish professor Elizabeth Midlarsky, who teaches and researches the Holocaust at Columbia Teachers College, was vandalized with swastikas and anti-Semitic slurs on Wednesday. 
 
 Midlarsky found the graffiti—two swastikas alongside the derogatory term “Yid"—when she came to her office around 1 p.m. Wednesday, at which point she notified security. The graffiti was drawn in the entryway to Midlarksy’s office, which is not shared with other staff. 
 
 “I was in shock,” Midlarsky said. “I stopped for a moment, because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.” 
 
 According to the NYPD, a different staff member entered the room at approximately 11:47 a.m. Wednesday and did not observe anything unusual at that time. The incident remains under active investigation by the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force and is being treated as an aggravated harassment. 
 
 All Teachers College academic buildings require ID for entry, either from Teachers College, Columbia, Barnard, or other affiliated schools. 
 
 Midlarsky’s office had previously been vandalized in 2007, when a swastika was spray-painted on her door and anti-Semitic flyers left in her mailbox. According to Midlarsky, this prior incident was “horrifying but not surprising” due to her “relatively visible status as a Jew” at the time, citing her numerous published papers and articles on subjects related to the Holocaust. 
 
 However, Midlarsky, attributed this second incident to a broader national rise in anti-Semitic crimes and a changing culture. Midlarsky is a professor of psychology and education whose research interests include altruism, religiousness, and the Holocaust. 
 
 Both the Office of University Life and Barnard College issued statements on Thursday morning strongly denouncing the anti-Semitic act and showing support for Jewish students. A Teachers College spokesperson was unable to comment on the specifics of the incident but provided a statement made by Teachers College president Thomas Bailey. 
 
 Read the full statement below: 
 
 "To the TC Community: 
 
 As you may already have heard, the office of a Teachers College faculty member has been defaced with swastikas. 
 
 We unequivocally condemn any expression of hatred, which has no place in our society. We are outraged and horrified by this act of aggression and use of this vile anti-Semitic symbol against a valued member of our community. 
 
 Please rest assured that we are working with police to discover the perpetrator of this hateful act. I also want to reaffirm the College’s commitment – and my own – to providing a respectful and welcoming environment for all, and to protecting the safety and dignity of all members of our community. 
 
 Thomas Bailey 
 
 President" 
 
 karen.xia@columbiaspectator.com | @xia_karen ||||| New York (CNN) The NYPD has launched an investigation into a possible hate crime after a Columbia University professor's office was vandalized with two spray-painted swastikas and a derogatory word aimed at Jewish people. 
 
 Professor Elizabeth Midlarsky, who is Jewish and has published various articles related to the Holocaust, told CNN, "I opened the outer door and almost passed out," when she saw the two swastikas spray-painted in red. 
 
 Midlarsky, who has worked at the university's Teachers College for 28 years, reported the incident to security and received support from staff before being brought home by a van. 
 
 Professor Elizabeth Midlarsky, told CNN, "I opened the outer door and almost passed out," when she saw the two swastikas spray-painted in red on the walls of her office. 
 
 "I was so shaky, I wasn't sure I was going to make it," she said. 
 
 Thomas Bailey, the president of Columbia's Teachers College said in a statement Wednesday, "We unequivocally condemn any expression of hatred, which has no place in our society. We are outraged and horrified by this act of aggression and use of this vile anti-Semitic symbol against a valued member of our community." Bailey added that they are working with police to find the perpetrator. 
 
 Read More ||||| [What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] 
 
 Two swastikas and an anti-Semitic slur were spray-painted Wednesday on the walls of a Jewish professor’s office at Columbia University, the latest in a surge of anti-Semitic incidents in New York this year. 
 
 The office belongs to Elizabeth Midlarsky, 77, who has written about the Holocaust and has been a repeated target of anti-Semitic vitriol while working as a psychology and education professor at the university’s Teachers College in Manhattan. 
 
 The Police Department said it was investigating the vandalism — the swastikas and the word “Yid” were scrawled in bright red in the entryway to the office — as a hate crime. 
 
 Ms. Midlarsky, who could not be reached for comment on Thursday, found the graffiti Wednesday afternoon, officials said. ||||| NEW YORK (CNN) -- Three professors and a former professor at Columbia University's Teachers College received hate mail this week, the New York Police Department said. It's the campus that was shaken by several bias crimes directed at black and Jewish professors in 2007. 
 
 Columbia University's Teachers College is once again the target of a hate campaign. 
 
 Three professors received manila envelopes Tuesday with images of swastikas in them. 
 
 The fourth, a former professor who is an African-American, was sent a manila envelope containing an image of a noose, according to NYPD deputy commissioner Paul Browne. 
 
 Among those receiving a swastika image was Elizabeth Midlarsky, a Jewish psychologist who has studied psychological principles in the context of the Holocaust, police said. 
 
 In 2007, her office door was spray-painted with a swastika. (A swastika is the right-angles cross symbol used on Nazi Germany flags). 
 
 The NYPD Hate Crimes Unit is leading the investigation into the incident. No arrests have been made. 
 
 "The TC community deplores these hateful acts, which violate every Teachers College and societal norm," said an e-mail Wednesday to faculty and students from the college's president, Susan Fuhrman; and dean, Tom James. 
 
 No arrests were been made in the 2007 incidents. Police declined to say if they believe there is a connection between those cases and the mailings this week. 
 
 
 
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– "I opened the outer door and almost passed out." It was then that Columbia University professor Elizabeth Midlarsky saw the two large swastikas spray-painted in red on the walls of her office (photo here), along with an offensive term for Jewish people. Wednesday's scene was deja vu for the ailing 77-year-old, a longtime Jewish activist who's published numerous articles related to the Holocaust during her 28 years as a psychology and education professor at Columbia's Teachers College. A swastika was spray-painted on Midlarsky's office door in 2007 and she was mailed an image of a swastika in 2009, CNN reported at the time. "I feel very, very vulnerable," though "I haven't done anything, said anything," Midlarsky now tells CNN, connecting the latest incident to "a trend and upsurge in anti-Semitism that we've seen in recent years." The incident comes weeks after a Brooklyn synagogue was defaced on the same day that two swastikas were found on Manhattan's Upper West Side, per the New York Times. Days before those events came the fatal shooting of 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. On Thursday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the State Hate Crimes Unit would assist the NYPD in investigating the graffiti, which he called an "abhorrent act of anti-Semitism and hate." It's believed to have been painted between 11:47am, when a staff member came into the room, and 1pm Wednesday when Midlarsky arrived, per the Columbia Spectator. The student-run paper reports ID cards from affiliated Columbia schools are required to access all academic buildings on the Teachers College campus. (A flight passenger was arrested after trying to identify Jewish people on board.)