‘Baby killer’: Vandals target Jewish Dallas City Council member’s home

‘Folks, you’re going to need to stop sitting on the sidelines thinking everything will be ok,’ Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn said. ‘Things are not ok.’

The display outside Dallas City Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn’s home. Image by screenshot/Twitter

By Louis Keene February 12, 2024

A pile of fake, bloodstained infant body bags formed the centerpiece of a jarring act of vandalism outside a Jewish Dallas city councilmember’s home over the weekend.

The councilmember, Cara Mendelsohn, posted on X photos of the display, which she said she discovered Saturday. The words “baby killer” were spray painted several times on a fence surrounding her property, as were several inverted red triangles that some say is a symbol of violent Palestinian resistance.

“Super Bowl ad showing hateful graffiti at a Jewish home – Do you wonder if this really happens?” she posted Sunday during the game. “I’m a Jewish elected official in Dallas and yesterday my home was defaced with hateful language and red triangles representing Palestine.”

🟦 Super Bowl ad showing hateful graffiti at a Jewish home – Do you wonder if this really happens?

I'm a Jewish elected official in Dallas and yesterday my home was defaced with hateful language and red triangles representing Palestine. It included a disgusting pile of rocks and… https://t.co/RJFrJho2Ti pic.twitter.com/EVUmRJwXu3

— Cara Mendelsohn 🟦 (@caraathome) February 11, 2024

Mendelsohn, who was president of the board of Dallas’ Jewish Family Service before she was elected to represent Far North Dallas in 2019, told the Dallas Morning News it was not the first time she felt targeted as a Jewish elected official since the Israel-Hamas war began.

Protesters held a small ceasefire rally outside her home in January, and she told the Morning News that she and her staffers had received death threats in recent months.

”I have tried to keep it out of the media, with consideration for my family. However, it has risen to a level that it is important for the community to understand the pervasiveness of these actions, in Dallas and across the world,” Mendelsohn said.

Mendelsohn’s office did not return a request for comment Monday.

In the ad for Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, first broadcast during the 2023 Super Bowl, a Jewish mother and daughter leaving their home in the morning find that it has been defaced with a swastika overnight. When the mother returns home, she finds that the neighbor has painted over it.

Louis Keene is a reporter for the Forward. His work has also been published in The New York Times, New York Magazine and VICE. He is based in Los Angeles and can be followed on Twitter @thislouis.

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