A search was underway in Westchester on Friday for the vandal behind graffiti spray-painted onto the windows of two different storefronts.
Each of the targeted shops, Cheryl’s Closet and Scoop Shop, are tucked in the Golden Horseshoe Shopping Plaza along New Rochelle’s border with Scarsdale, which boasts a large community of Jewish residents. An image of the Scoop Shop shared online shows streaks of black paint crisscrossing before the brightly colored decor inside, reading: “Genocide Supporters.”
Its owner, Adam Deutsch, said his store may have been targeted because of a “We Stand with Israel” sign he posted out front. He doubled down on the sentiment in the wake of the vandalism, writing that “WE STILL STAND WITH ISRAEL” in an Instagram post Thursday evening.
The same message was similarly painted across the front of Cheryl’s Closet, ABC 7 reported. A surveillance camera outside captured the suspect, who appeared to be female, vandalizing the storefront on Wednesday around 3:45 a.m., police said. Authorities discovered the graffiti a short time later while out on routine patrol.
There was no permanent damage to the stores and the graffiti has since been removed.
“We are deeply saddened and disturbed by the recent acts of antisemitism targeting two of our city’s storefronts,” the city of New Rochelle said in a statement.
“New Rochelle is built on the values of diversity, inclusion, and mutual respect,” it continued. “Hate crimes like the vandalization of Cheryl’s Closet and Scoop Shop have no place in our community and we vehemently condemn this behavior. We stand by our Jewish citizens and will not tolerate these types of attacks.”
The incident comes amid New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s push to classify certain types of graffiti as a crime punishable under hate crime laws.