Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Anti-Semitic, Racist Graffiti Painted On Virginia High School

(JTA) — Anti-Semitic and racist graffiti including swastikas were painted on a high school in eastern Virginia.

The graffiti were discovered at Godwin High School in Henrico County on Sunday morning, according to local media.

The graffiti included an image which “depicted a violent threat” along with the date May 15, which is marked in the Arab world as Nakba Day, which means Catastrophe and is the date on the Gregorian calendar marking the foundation of the state of Israel. Other graffiti said “KKK forever” and “You will die.”

The incident at the high school comes after similar graffiti was found on fences and road signs throughout western Henrico on Friday, the local CBS affiliate WTVR reported.

“The content of the vandalism is concerning and our detectives are investigating the potential of this being a hate crime,” said Henrico Police spokeswoman Lauren Hummel, according to the daily newspaper the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

School officials also met with the CEO of the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond on Sunday to share information and updates about the situation, the Times-Dispatch reported.

“When you see words and symbols like this you’re immediately nervous or scared or concerned,” Federation Chief Executive Daniel Staffenberg told the local ABC affiliate WRIC.

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

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.