BY THE VILLAGE SUN | The Police Department’s Hate Crime Task Force is looking for a man who scrawled “Free Palestine” on a historic Lower East Side yeshiva building.
According to cops, on Tues., March 19, just after midnight, officers responded to a 911 call about graffiti on “a synagogue” at 145 East Broadway, between Pike and Rutgers Streets, just north of the Manhattan Bridge. Actually, it’s a yeshiva, Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem, one of the oldest traditional Jewish schools in New York.
Further investigation revealed that a man was seen approaching the school and spray-painting on its wall, then fleeing eastbound on East Broadway.
The suspect was last seen wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt with a Haitian flag on the front, dark-colored jeans and black footwear. He is currently being sought on a charge of criminal mischief.
After the Hamas terrorist attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 and during the subsequent ongoing war, New York City has seen incidents of vandalism against Jewish-owned businesses and institutions. Congressmember Dan Goldman’s Brooklyn office was graffitied twice.
Police ask that anyone with information call the N.Y.P.D.’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Tips can also be submitted on the Crime Stoppers Web site at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on Twitter at @NYPDTips. All calls are strictly confidential.
And vandalism of property that doesn’t belong to you is illegal — whether public, or private businesses and homes is a crime. The problem is people don’t follow the law of this word or Yah’s laws, either. They will be judged and punished for their lawless unfruitful actions in the lake of fire. So repent and turn from your evil ways.
Graffiti is not allowed on buildings or public signs–whatever. I’m all for the Palestinians, but it’s not respectful to paint signs on a yeshiva. It could be seen as a hate crime, whether it is or not. This does not help the Palestinian cause, since so often any pro-Palestinian stance is seen as antisemitic, which it most certainly is not. Dan Goldman is not pro-Palestinian and seems unquestioningly all for Israel despite the genocide it’s carrying out. That’s why he’s getting targeted–but again, it would help the cause to contact him respectfully about his position, not to graffito his office.
It doesn’t do Haiti any good, either, for somebody wearing a Haitian shirt to be doing this stuff.
How is that a hate crime?
Writing “Free Palestine” on a building — even on a yeshiva — is a Hate crime??? How absolutely ridiculous.