Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

A Bridge Covered With Swastikas Stuns A Runner On Her Regular Route

Rebecca Konstandt is a devoted athlete who usually finishes her workouts on a runner’s high — but not on Tuesday. Instead, her regular route ended with the discovery of swastikas spray painted across n a bridge in Essex County, New Jersey.

“This is beyond stupid kids,” she wrote on Facebook. “This is not acceptable.”

Konstandt, 43, has been living in Livingston for 15 years. About a year ago, there was a swastika painted on a rock near her kids’ soccer practice, she says. She remembers similar incidents happening in Fair Lawn where she grew up.

Image by Rebecca Konstandt/Facebook

By Tuesday afternoon, the parks department had covered the swastikas with paint. Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura told NJ Advance Media that the police are working with Prosecutor’s Bias Crime Unit to investigate the incident. He also said Crimestoppers is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest.

Contact Shira Hanau at [email protected] or on Twitter @shirahanau

Report an incident

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.