A swastika was left on a wall of the Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza in Philadelphia

A Holocaust memorial in Philadelphia has been vandalised with a swastika as acts of antisemitism continue to rise across the country.

The Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza said in a post that earlier this weekend, an unidentified figure vandalised a wall of the plaza, drawing a large swastika.

The memorial’s post described it as “a disgusting act of antisemitism that comes amid a staggering spike in anti-Jewish hatred across Philadelphia and the country more broadly”.

While the swastika graffiti has been removed from the wall, according to NBC, the organisation is asking anyone who may have any information about the vandalism to contact the Philadelphia Police Department.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Not this shit again. American Jews are not Israeli. American Muslims are not Hamas. We’re Americans. We have nothing to do with what’s going on over there. Stop making us the targets of your bigotry!

    • kromem@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      People have held hatred for Jews long before this. I doubt the people putting up swastikas are doing so from bleeding hearts over Palestine.

      It’s just that now their hatred is perceived as more socially acceptable to be public with given the general “anti-Zionist” attitudes.

      For a lot of white supremacists, ‘Zionist’ has been a code word for ‘Jews’ for a very long time now. And their hatred for ‘Zionists’ has a lot more to do with antisemitism than it does with any concerns over territory boundaries.

      So they’ve been rejoicing over everyone suddenly seeming to be in agreement that their hatred is justified, and are now acting out more broadly.

      • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        Maybe, in Toronto the pro-Palestine people are the ones attacking Jewish people/businesses

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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      5 months ago

      If by “we” you mean Americans, then we certainly do have a lot to do with funding and supplying Israel’s genocide machine. I’m not justifying what happened, just pointing out that our leaders are making us complicit in all this shit.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I didn’t fund anything. No one asked me whether or not I wanted to fund Israel. But I get shit for it anyway because of who my ancestors are.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I hate it. I’ve never been to Israel, I never want to go to Israel, I have no interest in supporting Israel. My mother’s family has been in the U.S. since at least the early 1900s, some of them at least a generation earlier. My father is an immigrant- from England. I was born and raised in Indiana. Yes, Israelis and I share an ethnic background. That’s pretty much it. I don’t even know any Hebrew. I cheated for my Bar Mitzvah. I have so much more in common with pretty much every American Muslim than I do any Israeli. In fact, and I realize this is totally anecdotal, but every Israeli I have met has been an arrogant prick. It doesn’t especially endear me to them.

        Good pickles though. Try Israeli pickles if you haven’t. You don’t have to get them from Israel, they’re easy to make.

        http://mangersansfrontieres.weebly.com/blog/israeli-pickles

        That’s the one thing I’ll give Israelis. Based on the Israeli restaurant that used to be near where I used to live, they have decent food. Except the desserts. Sesame halvah. Bleah.

        • thefartographer
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          5 months ago

          I’ve been to Israel multiple times, I can read Hebrew (with nearly no understanding of what I’m saying) and I didn’t cheat for my bar mitzvah.

          All that being said, I find most Israelis in the United States insufferable. In Israel, you’ll find far more people who are far more fun, but most of them in a semi-tolerable way. I’ve got a lot of Israeli family who I love and adore and recognize their flaws.

          Anyway, I feel that your assessment is skewed due to a small dataset, but if you expanded the dataset, you’d find that you weren’t really that far off…

          Except for the sesame halvah. You gotta find the right kind, and then it’s delicious. There’s no middle-ground, though.

    • ArumiOrnaught@kbin.social
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      5 months ago

      What? Nazis have been doing this since their creation. This isn’t something that just started because Israel wants to do a “totally not genocide trust me bro”.

      Honestly I’m glad they’re dumb enough to use spray paint on the side of the Holocaust museum…again. It’s easy enough to clean and they’re not destroying anything.

      This happens so often I had to double check it was a new article.

      As long as Nazis exist Jewish people will always be the target of their bigotry. So I guess I don’t understand where you are coming from.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        It ebbs and flows. There is a sharp increase on attacks on both Jews and Muslims in America since the war started.

        This is because no matter how many generations back our families have been here, Jews and Muslims are still treated as foreigners on our own soil. And when a war involving Jews and/or Muslims starts, it emboldens bigots and creates new ones.

        American Muslims got treated like absolute dogshit after 9/11. It was heartbreaking. You can’t really believe that it was the same for them before 9/11.

        And, frankly, people who aren’t outright bigots need to be reminded at times like this that we’re their neighbors and have a lot more in common with them than we do with people across the world because they can be swayed by propaganda.

        • ArumiOrnaught@kbin.social
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          5 months ago

          I don’t disagree with you, and as a queer person believe me when I say I do understand how media coverage puts a target on your back.

          The one part I do disagree with is the people need to be reminded. Like imagine walking up to David Duke and reminding him that Jewish people are his neighbors. While I want to watch that, I don’t think it would end well. How’s that one meme go? There are two races, white and political. Two genders, male and political. Two religions. Etc etc. I dislike the “need to remind” because the implications is that it’s fine to not be normalized. I know that’s probably not what you’re going for, but small things like that do matter. Like when someone threatens to kill me I can just add that to the pile, but when someone I know says they’re “normal” it just means I’m excluded, part of a permanent out group. That makes me leagues more upset.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            I’m not sure how you get that from what I’m saying. I have no idea how saying “we share your culture a hell of a lot more than their culture” is excluding anyone. Do you know how many times in my life I’ve had some Christian tell me to speak Hebrew to them? They don’t even mean it in any sort of rude way, they just assume a Jew can speak Hebrew. They also assume I’m rich (I’m not) or that I’m good with money (I’m not) or that I’m highly educated (I’m not). None of those things are necessarily negative traits, but they are still stereotyping me and people need to be reminded not to stereotype others.

            Don’t you think cishet people should be reminded that not all gay men go mincing around and not all lesbians are super butch from time to time? Now imagine if they also think your allegiance is to another nation.

            • ArumiOrnaught@kbin.social
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              5 months ago

              The need to remind people is a certain lack of care of the people needing reminded. Like reminding people “hey don’t drink and drive” I honestly don’t think that helps out much. I feel like cigarettes packaging outside US does actually help though.

              For example: if someone with a fundamentalist church was harassing me, would I rather my boss protect me, or them say “it’s not a big deal”. How many times do you need reminding to not drink a drive. I’m sure they know to not do it, but at the root of it they don’t care. Reminding them won’t change anything.

              Don’t you think cishet…gay… lesbian

              Ayy you’re doing the thing :D I’m none of them, I’m also mostly just ribbing you. 3 types of Jewish people: Rabbi’s, Brooklyn mom’s, and John Stewart.

              Now imagine if they also think your allegiance is to another nation.

              Sure, maybe not another nation. But actively trying to destroy 'merica to create a “gay nation”. I 100% believe people act differently, but I believe that’s something they don’t believe in. Where your situation I can see people believing in that, which is worse.

              Let me rephrase my first attempt. “Do you think treating the symptoms will help fix the root problems or at least help the pain? Are you wasting time/effort/mental bandwidth on something that ultimately won’t help? Is there a better way of dealing with this?” And those are honest questions. You do have a different situation than me.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                3 types of Jewish people: Rabbi’s, Brooklyn mom’s, and John Stewart.

                “Mostly just ribbing me” with stereotypes is exactly what I’m fucking talking about.

                Imagine if you said- “I’m also mostly just ribbing you. 3 types of black people: Pastors, big mamas and Charlamagne Tha God?” to a black person. Do you think that’s an acceptable thing to say to a black person? I sure as fuck don’t. So why are you saying something similar to a Jew?

                • ArumiOrnaught@kbin.social
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                  5 months ago

                  You give me a mild insult, one that I’m used to, and even the “in group” I’m a part of on the Internet also will make similar jokes about themselves. Then I just repeated what you said to me but applied to you.

                  You’re mad at a mirror. And if you wanted me to believe you then you wouldn’t have done it a second time.

    • thefartographer
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      5 months ago

      At this point in our fucked up storyline, the swastika might have been drawn by an American Jew showing solidarity with Israel’s Palestinian genocide…

        • thefartographer
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          5 months ago

          I think we can agree that Hamas is God-awful and that Israel is committing atrocious crimes against humanity.

          I’m not in Israel and haven’t spoken to my family there in a while, but I’ve heard some pretty awful things from members of the Jewish community that I used to respect. I heard one person say that if wiping out all the Palestinians is what it’ll take for there to be peace in Israel, then they’re not going to argue against taking a page or two from Hitler’s notebook.

          We’ve past members from our synagogue who bore the tattoo from their concentration camps, the majority of my family tree on my mother’s side had so many branches pruned that I can only imagine what a big Polish family would look like. I’m not sure if that congregant was serious or joking, but the fact that other congregants nodded made me lose so much faith in my community.

          I’m not saying that Israel is equal to Nazis, I’m just saying that a lot of Nazi-sympathizers seem to really like what they’re doing right now. If you’ve got Nazis agreeing with your plan, it’s time to rethink your plan.

          And unfortunately, I was not being sarcastic: I truly worry that it’s only a matter of time before some American Jews begin to adopt the swastika in support of Israel. Once again, I’m not saying Israel is a bunch of Nazis — they just happen to be courting a lot of Nazis right now.

  • agitatedpotato@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    For what it’s worth, and hopefully thats not nothing, my personal expirences with American Jews paints them much more progressive and compassionate than the typical American. I abhor that they get caught up in this nonsense, especially when so many of them even shed off the propaganda around ‘birthright’ and know exactly what’s happening and have to reckon with the fact that a far right state conducts this violence in their name and religion.

    Shame on whoever uses current events as cover for stuff like this. Not only is that symbol never okay, but if you’re gonna bring any kind of heat to someone, make damn sure it’s someone responsible for what you’re upset about. This is just lazy and racist.

  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Israel using the good Jewish name as a shield for their Genocide is the root cause of rising Anti-Semitsm.

    Anytime a politician calls criticism of israel Anti-Semitic they should be charged with a hate crime.

    • yggstyle@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      This is what happens when you blur the lines between news and ‘storytelling.’

      News is boring, unbiased, dry facts. Media wants to make you watch it. Media needs you to need it. Keep em scared. Keep them fragmented. Keep them stupid.

      Small rant:

      Americans aren’t a single solitary mass of people… no more than any other group. Most of us are just on the train we were born on with about 0 say in where those tracks (and consequently momentum) is taking us.

      Vote? You get to pick between two awful choices which need to moderate just enough to get some of the other guys votes. Both suck equally. Third party has 0 chance of winning. Neither matters because they are paid for by mega corp x and the religion of line-goes-up.

      It pains me to say it but our best chance is in the next 10-15 years where most of these ancient fucking do nothing’s in congress are relegated to nursing homes and obituaries. But that only helps a bit. During that time we need a proper failure of the banking and existing bubble markets to bring about a crash that will more or less make the great depression look like a joke. Change comes with unification. Unification comes when suffering outweighs bais.

      We’re not there yet.

      20-30 years before we get the next ‘experiment’

      The wounds will be fresh enough to drive change and the damage will be sufficient enough to reinforce any positive movements.

      …But for now we’re just stuck on the tracks created by a generation that is bigger than us, watching their bubble economy implode, and being saddled with the debt that it bears. This is the death of an era and we’re just along for the ride.

      • ULS@lemmy.ml
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        5 months ago

        Yup.

        On another thought; Something I’ve been thinking a lot of the last couple years is that I feel it’s intentional. I wish I could get it out of my head. But I feel like we’ve all been suckered into this false story of glory. It never was.

        There’s line in the movie Leave the World Behind that I really liked. It was talking about the Friends TV show.

        “It’s almost as if it’s nostalgic for a time that never existed.”