Oregon Holocaust memorial defaced with swastikas and antisemitic slurs
(JTA) — A Holocaust memorial in Portland, Oregon, was defaced with swastikas and antisemitic slurs.
Police discovered the vandalism over the weekend covering a wall of the memorial in the Washington Park neighborhood and appearing elsewhere near the memorial, the local NBC affiliate KGW reported. There are no suspects.
The memorial was created by Holocaust survivors who lived locally and includes names of their family members who perished in the war, Judy Margles, the director of the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, told the news station.
“It’s very twisted. It’s very visceral, I have to say, when you hear about something — I think my whole body just went numb,” Margles said, describing her reaction when police alerted her to the vandalism on Sunday.
The city’s mayor, Ted Wheeler, condemned the vandalism.
“The damage to the Oregon Holocaust Memorial is heartbreaking, and it’s particularly painful that it happened during Jewish American Heritage Month,” Wheeler said on Twitter. “I denounce hate crimes, anti-Semitism, and white supremacy.”
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
