BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. – Police are looking for the people responsible for spray painting hate speech on the building that houses the Jewish Federation of Detroit on the anniversary of the October 7th attacks in Gaza.
It was already a hard enough day as it is and this only makes it worse. Most of this graffiti, we can’t even show you but it’s like salt on an open wound.
“This was already going to be a very heavy day for us, as we stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel, we don’t need this to cause any more trauma for a community that’s already feeling quite a lot on this very difficult day,” said David Kurzmann with the Jewish Federation of Detroit
Kurzmann woke up Monday morning to the news that this antisemitic graffiti had been spray painted all over the federation building on the one-year anniversary of the largest attack against Jewish people since the Holocaust.
“The language that’s used is such that makes us feel a sense of both fear and anger. You see the word ‘Intifada’ on the building -- that brings back memories of the Second Intifada of the early 2000s when busses were blown up by suicide bombers. Night clubs were blown up,” Kurzmann explained.
Unfortunately, this is the third time this year the building has been targeted. Although the people responsible tried to cover their tracks by spray painting one of the cameras, several others are located at nearly every corner of the building, they may have caught everything.
“We’re hopeful that they’ll be brought to justice. This should have absolutely no place in society and further, we would call on people of good conscience to stand up and speak out,” Kurzmann insisted.
The messages left behind - seemingly not swaying a thing.
“Our message today is that we’re still determined. We are resilient to be the strong community that we’ve always been. That’s not going to stop the people here from doing the job that they do every day -- lifting up people in need, building a vibrant feature for the community. But it’s very distressing and it just hurts,” Kurzmann concluded.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, there have been over 250 antisemitic incidents in Michigan since Oct. 7, 2023, and over 10,000 nationally.
Related: Canton Township joins growing list of communities targeted with antisemitic flyers
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard has vowed to go after the people responsible.