By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org

A former Dartmouth College student, writer for the conservative The Dartmouth Review, and a member of the Dartmouth College Republicans, Carlos Wilcox, is charged in the anti-Semitic vandalism of the Dartmouth Chabad House Menorah. 

Wilcox, 20, is charged with a class B felony, criminal mischief, for shooting out the lights of the menorah near the college common last year. Wilcox lives in the Bronx, New York, according to court records, and is currently free on personal recognizance bail. 

He did not respond to a phone call on Monday and his attorney, Amy Spencer, said he and his family have no comment on the matter at this time.

The Valley News first reported Wilcox’s arrest last week, but it has since been learned by InDepthNH.org that Wilcox wrote for the conservative and controversial, The Dartmouth Review. He was also the director of communications for the Dartmouth College Republican organization until he publicly quit after a disagreement with leadership over a cancelled event.

A representative for the Dartmouth College Republicans declined to comment. Representatives for The Dartmouth Review did not respond to a request for comment, and Wilcox’s articles have been scrubbed from the website.

“It’s not a surprise at all,” said Gabi Rodriguez, with the Dartmouth College Democrats. “The publication has caused harm to marginalized communities since their founding.”

Diana Lawrence, Dartmouth’s associate vice president for communications, said Wilcox was a student at Dartmouth from the fall of 2019 through to the spring of 2021. She said he did not graduate from the school. He was charged this fall, according to court records. 

“Any act of vandalism, whether targeted at a specific group or not, is deeply unsettling. We deplore violence of any kind and look forward to a just resolution of this matter,” Lawrence said.

Rabbi Moshe Gray, the executive director at the Chabad House, said he discovered the damage last year when he went to turn on the large electric lights during Hanukkah. Some of them had been shot multiple times.

“They really wanted to turn the lights out,” said Gray last year.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, issued a statement praising the arrest.

“We welcome the indictment in this case and express our support for the Jewish community in New Hampshire,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. “Whenever the symbols of any faith are targeted, all Americans must speak out in support of religious freedom and diversity.” 

Police have video surveillance from the night of the shooting last year that indicated there were two possible suspects. So far, Wilcox is the only person charged. He is not charged under any hate crime statute, and faces the single charge of criminal mischief.

“His actions are deplorable, and we call it what it is — anti-Semitism,” Rodrigues said.

Last year, Dartmouth students and alumni unsuccessfully petitioned the college to have The Dartmouth Review suppressed by the school after it was learned that former Dartmouth Review writer, and the head writer for Tucker Carlson’s television show, Blake Neff, was posting racist comments online.

According to the petition, Neff was just the latest in the publications history:

“Their methods include divisive articles (see Keeney Jones’ blatantly racist 1982 piece “Dis Sho Ain’t No Jive, Bro” or any of the insidiously racist pieces of recent years), engagement in anti-LGBTQ bullying, antisemitic statements (including the portrayal of President Freedman as Hitler), harassment of Black professors, and repeated offenses against indigenous students. Even The Dartmouth Review’s current logo flaunts this position, featuring a scene from the recently-removed campus weathervane deemed by President Hanlon to ‘represent an offensive portrayal of a Native American.’”

Current Fox News star Laura Ingraham edited the publication in the 1980s, and during her tenure sent a reporter to secretly record a meeting of closeted students who were seeking support from the school’s small Gay Student Association, according to a Newsweek article. The Dartmouth Review then released a transcript of that meeting.

The publication has also been criticized for publishing a poem mocking Asian women titled, “Take Up the White Man’s Fetish.”