NEW YORK (JTA) — Swastikas and the words “Hitler was a hero” were scrawled on the door of a three-family home in Brooklyn with haredi Orthodox residents.
The residents, Satmar Hasidic Jews, discovered the graffiti on Saturday morning, JP Updates reported. The New York Police Department is investigating the incident as a hate crime.
The vandalism occurred the previous night in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section, a once predominantly African-American neighborhood that has gentrified in recent years and seen a growing number of Hasidim move in.
According to DNA Info New York, the three families that live in the building have been harassed since moving in about a month ago.
“Most people on the block are very friendly,” Yehuda Kohn, who said he performed contracting work for the building’s owner, told DNA Info. “But this weekend someone took it to the next level.”
The previous harassment reportedly included someone banging on the door and yelling, as well as repeated deliveries of Chinese food and pizza that the residents did not order with requests for payment.
