Samantha wrote about the spike in anti-Jewish violence in the wake of George Floyd’s death. It has not stopped.
Someone sprayed anti-Semitic messages on a bedsheet and spread it over the Nashville Holocaust Memorial at the Gordon Jewish Community Center on Saturday during the Jewish Sabbath.
StopAntiSemitism.org reported that someone wrote, “K*kes Lie, Whites Die” along with the numbers 14 and 88:
On June 13, vandals attached a sheet containing antisemitic and white supremacist messages on the Memorial Walls at the Holocaust memorial in Nashville. The sheet, which was taped to the granite memorials at some point during the afternoon, read “Kikes Lie, Whites Die,” and referenced numbers 14 and 88. The number 14 represents the 14 words in a white supremacist motto, and 88 refers to the eighth letter of the alphabet, making it shorthand for “Heil Hitler.”
The organization condemned the vandalism:
Our Gordon JCC community is deeply shocked and saddened by an attack on the Nashville Holocaust Memorial located on our campus. On Saturday afternoon, vandals attached a sheet painted with anti-Semitic and white supremacy messages and it was immediately removed. We condemn such bigotry and violence, which has no place in Nashville or anywhere in America. We are working with local authorities in their investigation, and the Jewish community security network was immediately informed of this incident. We are fortunate to have an excellent security team in place to protect us. They work hand in hand with local and national authorities to keep us and our campus safe. At a time when our nation is confronting racism and anti-Semitic attacks are rising, our JCC community continues to stand united with those who condemn discrimination in all its forms.
I could not find any pictures of the memorial with the bedsheet.
The memorial opened in October 2006 after Holocaust survivor Esther Loeb “was saddened that Nashville did not publicly recognize or remember the Shoah.”
The Gordon Jewish Community Center donated land and they raised $500,000 to establish the memorial.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time people vandalized the memorial:
In 2017, the Nashville community center, which offers recreational programming for people of all religious backgrounds, received three terrorizing calls, including bomb threats. Though the calls were a hoax, fear and frustration lingered.
[Featured image via The Nashville Holocaust Memorial website]
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