(November 20, 2023 / JNS)
A home in Gordon Beach, Mich., belonging to Rahm Emanuel—U.S. ambassador to Japan, former White House chief of staff and former mayor of Chicago—was vandalized recently with antisemitic graffiti.
“Our family is very proud of how our friends, neighbors and the community have rallied to our support and in a singular voice in condemning hatred and bigotry,” Emanuel told the Chicago Sun-Times. He was reportedly in Chicago at the time of the incident.
Photos showed the word “Nazis,” with the last letter forming a dollar sign, painted in black on a wooden fence at the property on Lake Michigan. The second letter appeared to be an anarchist symbol.
The Michigan office of the Anti-Defamation League said it is “disgusted” by antisemitic messages defacing both Emanuel’s home and Chabad of Kalamazoo in Michigan. It added that it is working with law enforcement and the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan, and urges that “both incidents be investigated as potential hate crimes.”
“A little bit of light pushes away a lot of darkness,” said Rabbi Mordechai Haller of the Kalamazoo Chabad House of the vandalism of the Jewish center and Chanukah decorations there.
“This was an act of darkness,” he added. “There’s a lot of darkness in the world. The way that we fight is we start with light.”
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