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A Super Bowl commercial on Sunday showed a woman and her daughter who appeared to be on their way to school and about to get into their car in the driveway. “Mom, what’s that?” the daughter asks. On their plain white garage was a swastika scrawled in black and the words “No Jews.”
When the mom and daughter return later, they see that their neighbor had covered the offensive scribblings with white paint. “1 in 4 Jewish Americans were victims of hate last year,” the commercial said. “Hate only wins if you let it.”
Sharing the commercial on X, City Council member Cara Mendelsohn wrote, “Super Bowl ad showing hateful graffiti at a Jewish home – Do you wonder if this really happens?”
Mendelsohn said she’s a Jewish elected official in the city and her home was vandalized and defaced with hateful language like “baby killer” and red triangles. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), red triangles can signify violent Palestinian resistance against Israel. Also on the property were a pile of rocks and bricks and fake dead babies. “It’s unimaginable to me how our country has changed in the last 40 years,” Mendelsohn wrote on X. “Folks, you’re going to need to stop sitting on the sidelines thinking everything will be ok. Things are not ok.”
She thanked her friends, family and community, along with the Dallas Police Department, FBI, code compliance and streets department for working to address this crime. We reached out to DPD to get more details about the vandalism, to see if it was being investigated as a hate crime, and whether similar acts have taken place in the city in recent days but got little information.
“On Feb. 10, 2024 at about 8:50 a.m., Dallas police responded to a call for service in a North Dallas neighborhood,” a DPD spokesperson said by email. “The preliminary investigation determined when officers arrived, they found evidence of graffiti. The investigation is ongoing.”
“Unfortunately, Dallas isn’t alone in the rise of hate since Oct. 7.” – Stacy Cushing, Anti-Defamation League
Last October, weeks after the Hamas attack on Israel, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that antisemitism was reaching historic levels in the wake of violence in Israel and Gaza, according to the BBC. Wray told a senate panel at the time that 60% of all religion-based hate crimes targeted Jewish people.
Since the Hamas attack, antisemitic incidents reached their highest number in a two-month period since the ADL started tracking them in 1979. From Oct. 7 to Dec. 7, the ADL recorded 2,031 antisemitic incidents, up from 465 during the same period in 2022. These incidents include 40 acts of physical assault, 337 acts of vandalism, 749 incidents of verbal or written harassment and 905 rallies with antisemitic rhetoric, including expressions of support for terrorism against the state of Israel and/or anti-Zionism, according to the ADL.
“This terrifying pattern of antisemitic attacks has been relentless since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, with no signs of diminishing,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in December. “The lid to the sewers is off, and Jewish communities all across the country are being inundated with hate.”
🟦 Super Bowl ad showing hateful graffiti at a Jewish home – Do you wonder if this really happens?
I'm a Jewish elected official in Dallas and yesterday my home was defaced with hateful language and red triangles representing Palestine. It included a disgusting pile of rocks and… https://t.co/RJFrJho2Ti pic.twitter.com/EVUmRJwXu3
— Cara Mendelsohn (@caraathome) February 11, 2024
Earlier this month, a New Jersey man pleaded guilty to a series of bias-motivated violent assaults against members of the Orthodox Jewish community in and around Lakewood, New Jersey, according to the Department of Justice.
Stacy Cushing, ADL Texoma regional director, told the Observer that before Oct. 7, antisemitic incidents averaged 12-15 per month. Now, the monthly average is up to more than 48, Cushing said. “Given the increases we’ve seen since Oct. 7, we can only conclude this escalation is the result of the Israel-Hamas war,” she said. “Unfortunately, Dallas isn’t alone in the rise of hate since Oct. 7.”
There have been similar acts of vandalism across the region. “The vandalization of any kind, let alone the homes of those you disagree with, using terms like ‘baby killer’ is beyond the realm of legitimate debate,” Cushing said. “It is unacceptable and antisemitic to hold a Jewish person responsible for the actions of Israel, just as it would be unacceptable and Islamaphobic to hold a Muslim-American responsible for the actions of Hamas on Oct. 7.”
Reached for comment by text, Mendelsohn had a brief response. “There was a protest at my home last month, I’ve had threats, etc.,” she said.
She told The Dallas Morning News on Sunday: “I have tried to keep it out of the media, with consideration for my family. However, it has risen to a level that it is important for the community to understand the pervasiveness of these actions, in Dallas and across the world.”
