Ritzy New York town rocked by antisemitic graffiti scrawled across businesses

A ritzy New York town in the Hamptons was rocked by antisemitic graffiti found scrawled on businesses and public areas, according to police.

“With the current climate and the state of affairs in the world, it is troubling that an individual – or individuals – would act out in such a manner,” East Hampton Police Capt. Chris Anderson told Newsday.

Residents of Montauk, which has an East Hampton police precinct, found the antisemitic graffiti in multiple areas across town on Monday morning, including on the doors and picnic benches for two downtown restaurants and on food trucks.

Police responded to the scene “before sunrise,” East Hampton Police Chief Michael Sarlo told local media.

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Montauk is a hamlet located inside East Hampton on the South Shore of Long Island. It is a major tourist destination, especially in the summer, frequented by celebrities and known for its mansions overlooking the water.

The graffiti included swastikas, “Free Palestine,” and the phrase “Jeden die” – which likely intended to use the German word “Juden,” which means “Jews,” the New York Post reported.

“The spelling is not great,” Anderson said of the graffiti.

Police said the vandalism, which likely occurred Sunday night, is under investigation.

“We cannot make further comment on specific steps at this time,” the police chief said. “Obviously, the canvass of the areas for any and all video footage will be a primary concern.”

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Other town leaders were swift to denounce the graffiti and its messaging this week, including East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, who called it “evil.”

“We live in a close-knit, caring, and inclusive community, but this morning we were greeted by evil and disgusting symbols of hatred which appeared in Montauk during the overnight hours, on town buildings and private businesses,” Scoyoc said, according to a press release from the town of East Hampton.

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“I condemn these racist, anti-Semitic acts in the strongest possible terms,” he wrote. “Civil society requires us to treat each other with respect, tolerance, and dignity, especially now as tensions are increasing due to conflicts in other parts of the world.”

Rabbi Josh Franklin of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons added in a Facebook post that he spent Monday cleaning up the graffiti, and he compared the incident to “Kristallnacht” – also called the “Night of Broken Glass” – a violent pogrom against Jews and Jewish-owned businesses in Nazi Germany during 1938, less than a year before the outbreak of World War II in Europe.

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“I spent my morning in Montauk helping clean up the graffiti left on a Montauk store owned by Jews. It feels like I’m living Kristalnacht (sic) in 2023,” he posted to Facebook.

The incident comes nearly one month after the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas launched unprecedented attacks on Israel, sparking a war that has been raging since Oct. 7.

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Protests in support of both Israel and Palestinians in Gaza have since broken out in cities across the world, including New York. Similar antisemitic graffiti has popped up in other areas of the state since the war began, including a swastika that was scrawled on a Jewish deli on the Upper East Side last month and anti-Israel messages on a sidewalk outside a prominent Brooklyn synagogue, the New York Post reported.