The night of the Iranian president’s speech at Columbia, 18 acts of anti-Semitic vandalism occurred in Brooklyn Heights.
Police were out in full force in Brooklyn Heights Tuesday after an overnight wave of anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered in the tony neighborhood.
The words “Kill Jews” and a 4-foot swastika defaced an apartment building on Columbia Place. Similar-sized swastikas were painted at two houses of worship on Remsen Street, Congregation B’Nai Avraham and the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue.
The graffiti, which also included swastikas spray-painted on two cars, was discovered Monday night, and by Tuesday morning the tally had grown, with at least several more cars found defaced with swastikas, and two cars papered with fliers declaring “Kill All Jews,” police said. All told, police said, there were 18 acts of vandalism.
Looks like the Mahdi Army was out in force, going after “Zionists.”
I’m sure there are many out there who will insist the two events are not related.
They would be idiots.
The Brooklyn Heights neighborhood is right next to Atlantic Avenue which is a heavily populated Arab and Muslim area. When Israel knocked off the blind hamas sheik a few years ago the neighborhood conducted a protest. NYPD should look in this area for the culprits.
When I picked up my 12-year-old daughter after work yesterday, here’s what I asked her:
“So what did they talk about in Hebrew School today?”
She goes to Hebrew School at the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, one of the two synagogues within a few doors of each other on Remsen Street that had swastikas painted on them some time Monday night. (I only heard about the flyers today.) When I arrived at BHS just before 6:00 PM, the brownstone stoop had been cleaned, and all that remained was some water left over from its scouring.
As I waited for her on the sidewalk, next to a parked My9 News van, various folks walked up and spoke about how disturbing it was for this to have happened in one of our neighborhoods. The BHS security guard — a black man of Caribbean descent who (if I remember the story correctly) became increasingly interested in Judaism as he spent more time there and ultimately converted — was talking with whoever came up and inquired.
The BHS security man retained his calm demeanor, but I couldn’t help but think that he must have felt — even though he obviously can’t be there all the time — that he’d failed to protect the synagogue. I watched him stand there, on top of the wet patch of brownstone, letting people know where it had been.
As one who sometimes worries about his daughter’s safety at Hebrew School, that security guard is a reassuring presence to us all. I’m sure lots of other parents would agree. On a purely personal level, this act must have infuriated him. I know there are bigger issues at stake here, but I can’t stop thinking of how he, our protector in many ways, must have felt.
Although I know that this act was so hurtful to so many people, I would think that most would see it as symptom of someone else’s illness and be thankful that they’re not similarly infected. I’m pretty sure that’s how my daughter thinks of it. She understands the hate involved, but she’s learning a lesson from it, not insulted by it. For her, the racist or racists responsible exist as laboratory phenomena — something more to be puzzled over than offended by.
If today’s Daily News is correct, there are a lot of cops working on it and at least one local store security camera may show something promising.
It could have been done by local Muslims, but my money’s still on stupid white guys. We’ll see.
According to my daughter, yesterday’s Hebrew School class was not dominated by the event — they had lots of other ground to cover — but I’d consider it one of the most important ones she’s ever had.
Yeah, I don’t spend a lot of time talking about anti-Semitism with my fourth graders. And when we do cover it, they are utterly puzzled by why people hate us just because we’re Jews, and ultimately decide that those people are, well, stupid.
Well, sure, they’re stupid — but that doesn’t mean that they’re not dangerous. I don’t know that there’s much point in hating or not hating antisemites; the issue isn’t what you feel, but what you do.
Thought experiment: how many antisemites would be spraying graffiti on Jews’ homes and cars if they thought that many of the Jews were armed and trigger-happy?
(No, I’m not advocating shooting somebody over graffiti; this is just a thought experiment.)
Orthogonally: back just after the Buford Furrow thing in 1999, I had a conversation with an Israeli friend of mine: “Where the hell were the parents?” was his question.