Bench near Minneapolis synagogue vandalized with swastikas
(JTA) — A bus stop near a synagogue in Minneapolis was vandalized with swastikas.
The graffiti was discovered Tuesday on a bench outside Shir Tikvah Congregation. Across the street, “Seig Heil, Heil Hitler, Trump 2020” was written on a traffic utility case, the synagogue said in a message to congregants.
Neighbors discovered the vandalism and reported it to the police and the Jewish Community Relations Council. No graffiti was found on the synagogue building.
“We are grateful to these neighbors who, with love and pain, brought these to our attention (and one went home to get electrical tape to cover what he saw, before calling in the incident),” the message from the synagogue’s leadership said.
A local Jewish activist and member of the synagogue wrote on Facebook about learning of the incident as she was leaving a protest against the death of George Floyd, an African-American man who died in police custody. Video showed an officer with his his knee on Floyd’s neck while Floyd complained that he could not breathe. Four officers have been fired in the aftermath of the incident.
“[I]f I could tell white Jews one thing, it’s this: Ask yourself what you would do if you found antisemitic graffiti at your shul, or if you felt afraid,” wrote Carin Mrotz, who leads Jewish Community Action, an organization that promotes racial and economic justice in Minnesota.
Mrotz continued: “Who would you call? If your first impulse, if your reflexes say ‘police,’ I want you to spend some time thinking about that, how the very thing you might instinctively seek out to feel safer has the potential to cause fatal injury to someone else. And grapple with that.”
The post Bench near Minneapolis synagogue vandalized with swastikas appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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.