‘Death To The Kikes’ Painted On Wall Of Jewish Charity In Ukraine
Image by facebook
(JTA) — Unidentified individuals wrote “death to the kikes” on the wall of a Jewish charity in western Ukraine.
The black graffiti was discovered Monday on the exterior wall of Uzhgorod’s Hesed Shpira charity, which is funded by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, or JDC, Eduard Dolinsky, director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, wrote on Facebook Monday.
The incident, which Dolinsky said occurred Sunday night, follows several cases of death threats and vandalism against Jewish institutions in western Ukraine.
In August, a Jewish cemetery in the town of Svaliava near Uzhgorod was vandalized, with some 20 headstones toppled or smashed, according to the local Chabad organization.
In July, unidentified individuals hurled a firebomb at a synagogue in Lviv and, in a separate incident, wrote anti-Semitic slogans on another Jewish community building in that western Ukrainian city.
These incidents and others occurred amid a divisive public debate in Ukraine on the conferring of state honors to nationalists who incited hatred against Jews during the 1930s and 1940s, including for some who collaborated with the Nazis.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Monday mentioned anti-Semitism and the need to fight it during a meeting at his residence with the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin, who was visiting Israel. It was the first issue mentioned in a statement by the president about their meeting.
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.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
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 the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
