Bigots spray-paint ‘Hitler’ on NYC synagogue
A Brooklyn synagogue with Holocaust survivors among its congregation was the victim of anti-Semitic graffiti vandals who spray-painted “Hitler” on its façade, authorities said Wednesday.
Councilwoman Inna Vernikov posted a video of the hateful message that desecrated the Beth Shalom Synagogue on Avenue X in Sheepshead Bay.
Vernikov said she had received a text message from Rabbi Asher Altshul, who saw the vandalism when he arrived at the synagogue around 6:30 a.m.
“This is not something we’re [just] seeing in the media. This is something happening in our backyard,” Vernikov, who lives three blocks from the house of worship, said in a video posted on Twitter.
“There are Holocaust survivors who attend this shul,” she added. “And after the atrocities they’ve seen during World War II, they now have to come to a synagogue in the United States of America in 2022 and see a Hitler sign on the wall.”
Vernikov told The Post in a subsequent interview that officers from the 61st Precinct were investigating the alleged hate crime, while volunteers from the Shomrim patrol erased the hateful graffiti
“It’s very scary. It’s sickening,” said Vernikov, a Ukraine-born Jew whose own relatives were among the 6 million killed in the Nazi genocide during World War II.
Recent reports show that anti-Semitism is on the rise in New York and across the country, with reported incidents ranging from physical assaults to Jew-hating graffiti and vandalism.
Vernikov said she’s pressuring educational institutions — including the City University of New York — to confront anti-Semitism among its own faculty and students.
