(JTA) — An anti-Semitic message has been left in a public area in a suburb of Pittsburgh for the third time in recent months.
“Kill the Jews!” was found spelled out in pine cones with a swastika in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania on Tuesday morning, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
The woman who found the threat in a residential neighborhood rearranged the cones to read “Love,” but not before taking a photograph of the hate message and calling police, Mt. Lebanon Police Lt. Duane Fisher told the newspaper.
In December, swastikas were drawn into a windowsill of a girls’ bathroom at a local middle school, and a racial slur was painted on a tackling dummy on its sports field.
Prior to that, a swastika was drawn into the mulch near a local elementary school’s playground; a middle school student admitted to drawing that swastika.
Fisher told the newspaper it is likely that the latest incident was also the work of a student “that isn’t aware of the weight of their words and what they’re writing and the potential impact it has on people.”
A school crossing guard frequently uses the pine cones at that corner to leave messages for children such as “Have a nice day,” Fisher said.
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