When Max LaVictoire returned to the Zeta Beta Tau house at Washington University Friday evening after a week of skiing over the school’s spring break, he was greeted by an unwelcome — and extremely upsetting — surprise: All four tires on his Dodge Ram 1500 truck had been slashed and two swastikas had been etched with a key into the body of the vehicle.

“I wasn’t so much offended as I was angry,” said LaVictoire, 20, a sophomore from Atlanta who is Jewish and one of 54 young men who belong to the historically Jewish fraternity at Wash U.

LaVictoire lives in the fraternity house, located at 7200 Forsyth Boulevard, with seven others. He had left his car parked in a designated outdoor parking space at the back of the house.

“I wish they didn’t do what they did in such a cowardly way,” LaVictoire added. “But it seems that whoever did this was targeting ZBT, or certain members.”

University City police, who are investigating the incident, said three other fraternity members, each of whom live on Forsyth but not at the ZBT house, also reported having their tires slashed. All of the incidents are believed to have taken place between last Thursday night and early Friday morning.

“The truck was the only one that had the swastikas scratched into the body,” said U. City police Captain Mike Ransom. “One of the other cars had the name ‘Ben’ scratched into it, which was not the name of the young man who owns the car. We don’t know what to make of it.”

Ransom said the incident is still under investigation but the FBI’s Hate Crimes Task Force had been notified. He said there are no suspects at this time and no witnesses.

Ransom said detectives investigating the incident have nothing to tie it to an Aryan Nations demonstration that took place between 1 and 2 p.m. Saturday on 7900 Forsyth in Clayton, between Meramec and Central avenues.

Devon Leichtman, 20, a junior from Boston, was getting ready to fly to Denver Friday for a family gathering when he found out one of his tires had been slashed. He and fellow ZBT brother Dustin Kline, 21, had parked behind each other in the driveway of 7100 Forsyth. All of Kline’s tires were slashed.

“It’s hard not to feel frustrated because they didn’t gain anything by doing what they did,” said Leichtman. “It just cost me money and made me almost miss my flight.”

He said when he first learned what had happened, he thought someone or some group was targeting members of the fraternity, though he had no idea why. He noted that six other cars parked at 7100 Forsyth were untouched; none of those six is affiliated with ZBT, just Leichtman and Kline.

“With the vandalism on Max’s car, it seems anti-Semitic, but I just don’t know,” Leichtman added. However, Kline, while a member of ZBT, is not Jewish.

“Something here seems more personal to me than anything else,” said Karen Aroesty, regional director of the Missouri and southern Illinois Anti-Defamation League. “The swastikas could have easily been thrown in to make it appear something more than it is.

“From my perspective this is a great teaching tool – when is something a hate crime and when is it a vandalism/graffiti case? The approach is never cut and dry.”

Aroesty said the ADL has taken swastika graffiti “off-the-table as a de facto anti-Semitism identifier” because so many people know it’s bad but don’t really understand the meaning of the symbol and use it indiscriminately. “There’s a piece of that that leaves it questionable,” Aroesty said. “People have to be very careful to understand that piece of it.”

But Laurence Bolotin, executive director of ZBT National based in Indianapolis, said he believes a swastika is a clear sign of anti-Semitism. He reported a slight rise in campus vandalism recently directed at ZBT chapters nationwide. Among the incidents he cited were swastikas drawn on a new ZBT house at the University of Memphis as fraternity brothers prepared to move in and anti-Semitic vandalism at Indiana University directed at Jewish campus organizations, including the ZBT and Chabad houses at the end of 2010.

“It’s sad but it reaffirms that Jewish fraternities are still needed to ensure Jewish students have a place they can feel comfortable and call their own,” said Bolotin.

Rob Wild, assistant to Washington University Chancellor Mark Wrighton, said the administration was “shocked to hear the news” from these fraternity members.

“We spoke with the chief of campus police who knows of no other incidents like this. It seems isolated,” said Wild, noting that the ZBT house and other properties where the vandalism took place are located off-campus and under the jurisdiction of the University City police.

“Our response has been two-fold,” Wild continued. “We support these students and want to help them with what is obviously a scary, upsetting situation. We have had a professional support staff person make contact with them.

“And we will continue to stay on top of the situation, having campus police be in touch with University City police. We’re hopeful something will turn up and we’ll find out who is responsible for this.”

Chabad on Campus, located next door to the ZBT house on Forsyth, reported no vandalism or graffiti at its location. Kline, a junior from San Francisco, said he had seen another “random car” along Forsyth that had been hit, but knew it didn’t belong to a fraternity brother. Captain Ransom said he had no report of any cars being vandalized other than the ones belonging to ZBT members.