Cohen discovered the sign while putting up campaign signs that had been blown over in a recent storm. Image by Courtesy of Lawrence Cohen

By Ari Feldman May 8, 2018

A Jewish candidate for Congress from Ohio said Monday that one of his campaign signs had been spray painted with a swastika, WBNS reported.

Lawrence Cohen is one of 10 candidates vying for the Republican nomination in Ohio’s 12th district. He works as an accountant and has worked with the IRS.

Cohen told the Forward he found the lawn sign painted with a black swastika while putting up campaign signs in his district that had been blown over by a recent storm.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

“It seems like they decided that a Jewish candidate running for Congress was not something they could tolerate and decided to deface the sign,” he told WBNS. “Whether it’s on a banner for a congressional candidate, or the side of a synagogue, or on a Jewish doctor’s office, it’s a hate crime and it’s extremely disturbing.”

Cohen filed a police report with the local sheriff’s office. He said he did not think that the swastika had been painted by anyone affiliated with any of his primary opponents.

“This happened on the last weekend day before today’s primary, a day I should have been spending campaigning, knocking on doors and talking to voters,” Cohen told the Forward in an email. “Instead I had to deal with this, the emotions it created, try to get my head back in the right place and spend time with the Licking County Sheriff filing a report.”

Cohen added that his children have received anti-Semitic texts from classmates.

Ohio’s 12th district is over 85% white. Donald Trump carried the district with 53% of the vote in 2016.

The district’s former representative, Pat Tiberi, resigned in January with news reports suggesting that he left out of frustration with Donald Trump’s leadership of the Republican Party.

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

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 polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re in the middle of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount