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Anti-Semitic Graffiti Pops Up All Over the U.S.

Hateful messages against Jews, as well as gays and Muslims, have been branded onto properties across the U.S., from college dorms to churches and a Jewish cemetery

by
Jonathan Zalman
November 14, 2016
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Here’s an unfun Internet exercise: Head over to news.google.com and search for “swastika.” Lots pops up, now more than usual, which is more frequent than it ought to be in the first place.

Anti-Semitic graffiti and other anti-Jewish acts and symbols have been appearing all over the country since last week’s general election. There was the swastika drawn on the door of a dorm in which three Jewish students live at The New School in New York City, creating “shock” at the liberal-minded university.

We woke up to this on our door, in a dorm at @TheNewSchool, where 3 Jewish women live. @ShaunKing @deray @parsonsdesign pic.twitter.com/tK1IpXA1ae



— sam ☕ (@samlichtenstein) November 12, 2016

And a swastika drawn on the sidewalk in the Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn, where Chabad-Lubavitch is headquartered.

All the shots I took earlier of the swastika at Montgomery and Brooklyn in Crown Heights. pic.twitter.com/7Sf1zRAPAJ



— Mordechai Lightstone (@Mottel) November 13, 2016

Even an Episcpoal church in Indiana has seen a wave of racism and bigotry, with some jerk or group of jerks spray-painting a swastika and “heil Trump,” alongside homophobic slurs, onto church property. And there’s anti-Muslim graffiti at NYU, hate all over America, including in Bellevue, Washington, and still more in Upstate New York, including at a Jewish cemetery in Warwick.

And in Philadelphia. And at a college in D.C.

And though these instances are unfortunate (to say the least) and quite scary (to say the least), especially for those directly involved, at least they are being reported. Which is important in the face of such hate. Report it.

Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.