Lawmaker Who Wants To Rename Trump State Park Flooded With Anti-Semitic Hate

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — A New York assemblywoman has been receiving hate mail since proposing a bill that would rename Donald J. Trump State Park in honor of the counterprotester killed during the Charlottesville white supremacist rally.
Nily Rozic, a Queens Democrat who was born in Jerusalem and moved to New York as a child, said she has received postcards with white nationalistic phrases such as “alt right,” “white race” and “goyim,” as well as “kike” and “Tel Aviv should be nuked.”
The Trump park, which straddles New York’s Westchester and Putnam counties, would be renamed Heather Heyer State Park under the proposed legislation, according to the New York Daily News. Heyer was mowed down last month by a white van driven by a suspected white supremacist from Ohio. Trump purchased the land in the 1990s for $2 million and donated it to the state in 1996, according to the New York Post.
The New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the postcards, which were addressed to Rozic at her office.
At least one card used the numerals “1488,” which the Anti-Defamation League has described as code for white supremacy and “Heil Hitler.”
Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription — removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story.
But while the Forward is free to read, it isn’t free to produce. Big stories — like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses — take months of research and fact-checking. All while we keep you informed of what you need to know each day.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Forward Publisher & CEO
