Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Historic Manhattan Yeshiva Vandalized With Graffiti

(JTA) — Graffiti was painted on the exterior of a historic yeshiva on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

The Mesivta Tiferes Yerushalayim building was vandalized between Friday afternoon and Saturday evening, possibly while students were inside.

The graffiti included what looks like a clown face, the word “evil,” and a series of letters and numbers meant to look like a racial slur, police told the local media. The New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Unit is investigating the graffiti as a “possible bias incident,” Mayor Bill deBlasio said in a tweet.

Police are looking at security camera footage, according to the Yeshiva World News website, which first reported the incident.

Mesivta Tiferes Yerushalayim is among the oldest existent yeshivas in the city and is renowned for being the institution once led by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, who is regarded among the Modern Orthodox as one of the most important Jewish legal authorities. The rabbi’s son, Rabbi Dovid Feinstein, now leads the yeshiva.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

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.

Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30

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.