Months Later, Swastikas Still Scrawled on Trees in Upstate New York Town
(JTA) — Swastikas and Nazi slogans remain on dozens of trees in an upstate New York town months after they were first reported to local police.
Police in Clarkstown, in Rockland County, say they are continuing to investigate the vandalism, which was first brought to their attention on July 24, the Journal News reported. No arrests have been made.
The graffiti includes several swastikas, a misspelling of the Nazi salute “Sieg Heil,” and other derogatory language about blacks and Jews.
Clarkstown police told the Journal News that the swastikas have no known connection to an incident in August in which fireworks were set off outside the home of two local Chabad rabbis.
In February 2016, the Clarkstown school superintendent, J. Thomas Morton, apologized after ninth-graders were shown a video that the Anti-Defamation League said was historically inaccurate and promoted anti-Semitic stereotypes.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO