Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity members awoke yesterday morning to find a black swastika spray-painted on the back of their fraternity house.

State College police said they are investigating the incident but would not comment further. Fraternity members said police arrived at about 2 p.m. yesterday at the house, 240 E. Prospect Ave.

Alpha Epsilon Pi is a national Jewish fraternity. At Penn State, Alpha Epsilon Pi has both Jewish and non-Jewish members, according to fraternity members, who suspect the vandalism happened early yesterday morning.

"It bothers us all," member Josh Goodkin (sophomore-accounting) said.

The graffiti was painted two days after Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day that commemorates the struggle of the Jewish people in World War II.

"We want to send a message to the university community that we won't tolerate it," Goodkin said.

Penn State Hillel Executive Director Tuvia Abramson called the vandalism "revolting" and "shameful."

"It is a hate crime. It is unacceptable," he said. "It does not happen often in our community, and we are lucky in it. But the reality is that two days after the Holocaust Memorial Day, a sick person will go and put a swastika on a building that is a mostly Jewish fraternity."

He remembers an incident in November 1995 when a crowd of 2,000 students rallied to "Take A Stand" against intolerance at Schwab Auditorium.

"[It was the] biggest demonstration since Vietnam," Abramson said.

Another problem surfaced in 1997 when a student reported a swastika drawn on the wall in The Legend apartment building, 246 Highland Ave.

"We've seen hate crimes on campus before," Rabbi Nosson Meretsky said. "This is definitely more extreme than incidents that have happened in the past few years."

Meretsky said yesterday afternoon that he was going to go to the fraternity to talk to and help the fraternity members.

The fraternity has not begun removing the swastika, part of which is drawn backward.

"We're in the process of removing it," Alpha Epsilon Phi President Jared Smith (junior-journalism) said.

Abramsom said he is "shocked" but "not surprised" by the incident.

"There is a lot of teaching to do, and the hate did not end yet," he said.

Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity members said they have been having problems involving derogatory language and anti-Semitic attacks from another fraternity for the past week.

"There was an altercation with another fraternity due to anti-Semitic remarks," Alpha Epsilon Pi's Vice-President David Weissman (sophomore-landscape architecture) said.

--Collegian staff writer Andrew McGill contributed to this report.