Jewish Phoenix Family Leaves Anti-Semitic Graffiti On Home To Send Message
Image by Kurt Hoffman
Shoshana and Ari Simone had just returned from a Fourth of July weekend trip to Atlanta when they noticed papers taped to their mailbox.
The papers, it turned out, were put up by a neighbor to cover up a swastika and the word “Jew,” spray-painted on to the Simones’ mailbox while they were away.
“To see this resurfacing 80 years later is really upsetting,” Shoshana Simone told the Arizona Republic (Ari Simone is the grandson of Holocaust survivors). “‘Devastating’ is the only word we’ve been able to use to describe it.”
Though the couple, who have a young daughter, were deeply upset by the incident, they’ve decided to make a statement with the graffiti rather than scrub it away. They’ve decided to remove the paper so that people can see what was written.
“We’re not going to let this frighten us. I think for my husband it’s more standing up, not hiding who are,” Shoshana Simone said.
There were four reported anti-Semitic incidents in Arizona in 2015 and 10 in 2016. In the first quarter of 2017 there were 14, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Contact Jesse Bernstein at [email protected] or on Twitter ,@__jbernstein
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.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
