(JTA) — A dead pig’s body was found outside the door of a rabbi in the heavily Orthodox township of Lakewood, New Jersey.
The body was found on Shabbat, according to The Lakewood Scoop, and the local police department is treating the incident as a bias crime. Pigs are seen as the quintessentially unkosher animal and have long been used as an anti-Semitic symbol.
“We will not tolerate such acts in our town,” Lakewood Police Chief Greg Meyer told The Scoop, a local publication in the South Jersey township of 106,000.
The New York-New Jersey office of the Anti-Defamation League linked the incident to previous acts of anti-Semitism in Ocean County, which includes Lakewood.
“The alleged incident that took place in Lakewood on Saturday is absolutely horrifying,” ADL NY/NJ Regional Director Scott Richman said in a statement. “No individual or group deserves to be targeted in this way. ADL has been deeply concerned by the rising tide of antisemitism in Ocean County, and this matter is no exception.”
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has reached out to the Lakewood Police for more information.
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