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30 Homes in Wisconsin Vandalized with Anti-Semitic Graffiti

February 15, 2015

Police in Madison, Wisconsin, are investigating 30 cases of property damaged by graffiti on the Far West Side overnight Friday.

The graffiti included some swastikas and anti-Semitic expressions, along with derogatory words directed toward women and minorities, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

Madison Police Officer David Dexheimer told the local WISC TV that garage doors, driveways and vehicles were targeted in the vandalism.

Officers are still not sure whether any of the incidents were hate crimes, WKOW television reported.

“While some of the things that were or painted are troubling, we don’t know that that was specifically targeted to a particular victim,” Dexheimer said.

Nevertheless, neighbors in the community called the incident a hate crime.

“Everyone in the neighborhood is pretty upset,” Jim Stein, a neighbor who has lived on the street for 18 years, told WISC.

Stein woke up Saturday morning to see “F— Jews” written on a garage door right across the street. Later in the day, once the snow cleared, a swastika was visible on the driveway.

“It was, of course, extremely disturbing to me,” Stein, who is the president of the Jewish Federation of Madison, added.

“This is anti-Semitic to the extent people feel comfortable equating Jewish people or the Jewish religion with sexual terms and sexual parts of people’s bodies,” he added.

Stein told WISC that the vulgar language and swastika just across the street are too close for comfort.

“To me, that reeks of anti-Semitism, and that’s an important wake-up call for the city of Madison,” he said.

Officers said none of the victims saw any potential suspects around their homes.

Police request that anyone with information call the Madison Police Department or Madison Area Crime Stoppers.

America has proven not to be immune from the skyrocketing global anti-Semitism, as several severe cases of violence targeting Jews have occurred in recent months.

In September, a yeshiva in the New Jersey town of Lakewood was broken into by a vandal who defaced the Jewish study hall with swastikas and other anti-Semitic hate symbols.

In early August, 60-year-old Rabbi Joseph Raksin hy”d was shot to death as he walked to a local synagogue in Miami, Florida. Reportedly Raksin was shot by two young African-American men who fled the scene after the murder

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