Police are investigating a troubling trend across South Florida after vandals spray-painted anti-Semitic messages in two locations in Miami-Dade County, one day after the same tag was spotted in Miami.
7News cameras captured one of the tags, which read “Communism is Judaism,” at a construction site on the corner of Red Road and Southwest 40th Street in Southwest Miami-Dade.
Not far from there, along Alhambra Circle in Coral Gables, the same message was spray-painted.
Shoshana Bicky said she spotted the graffiti and alerted police.
“I was driving down Bird Road, and I saw a lot of these graffiti signs that say ‘Communism is Judaism.’ There’s three incidences along Bird Road. I mean, I was, like, shaking in my car, basically. Oh, my goodness. It’s not just one incident. It’s three incidents along the same street,” she said. “I mean, it’s disgusting. It’s absolutely disgusting.”
“The person who did this, they seem to be conflating Judaism with communism, but in truth they seem to know the most about vandalism,” said Evan Nierman.
In Hallandale Beach, a Holocaust survivor said someone drew swastikas on his car. His family said they are upset that this happened, especially on the eve of Passover.
The drawings happened when the car was parked in a garage in a high-rise building on Ocean Drive, Friday.
“It’s particularly sad that this happened to someone who endured the ultimate anti-Semitic act, which is the Holocaust,” Nierman said.
Officials are now reviewing surveillance videos to find the person responsible.
“It’s a terrible occurrence anytime, but that’s especially so on the eve of a Jewish holiday,” Nierman said. “It’s just really sad that, in this day and age, Jewish people are still finding themselves under assault and under attack.”
The tags come after City of Miami Police responded to an auto center on Bird Road and 37th Avenue that had also been marked with the same message. It has since been painted over while police investigate, but people in the Jewish community are sickened by it.
“This community of Miami has a lot of, obviously, Jewish people, and this isn’t the first anti-Semitic incident even in Miami over the weekend,” Bicky said. “I know there was one in Hallandale Beach, so it’s kind of shocking that there would be this and also that in just one weekend.”
“Unfortunately, what we saw in South Florida over the last day or two has been a continuation of something that Jewish people have had to endure for literally thousands of years,” Nierman said.
If you have any information on anyone involved in these crimes, call police.
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