Antisemitic Vandals Target Home of Brooklyn Museum Director Labeled ‘White Supremacist Zionist’ by Protesters

‘This is not legitimate protest. This is not free speech,’ the Manhattan Borough president, Mark Levine, says. ‘This is vile antisemitism making Jews unsafe.’

Twitter.com
Antisemitic vandalism overnight Tuesday in New York. Twitter.com

The New York Police Department is investigating antisemitic graffiti that vandals sprayed overnight on the homes of board members of the Brooklyn Museum, including the director of the museum, Anne Pasternak, who they called a “white supremacist zionist.”

Photos circulating online show that multiple homes, including one on the Upper East Side, were vandalized with red spray paint, antisemitic signs, and inverted red triangles — a symbol that Hamas has used to identify Israeli military targets and that has surfaced at protests on college campuses across the country.

Mayor Adams said on Wednesday morning that “this hate will not stand in our city. The NYPD is investigating and will bring the criminals responsible here to justice.”

Other local lawmakers were quick to denounce the wreckage. 

“This is not legitimate protest. This is not free speech,” Manhattan Borough President, Mark Levine, wrote on X. “This is vile antisemitism making Jews unsafe. We cannot turn a blind eye to this.”

“The cowards who did this are way over the line into antisemitism, harming the cause they claim to care about, and making everyone less safe,” the city’s comptroller, Brad Lander, wrote on X.

Some internet users compared the vile scenes to the actions taken by far-right terrorist organizations in America’s history. “This is modern day cross burning and the people responsible need to be prosecuted like the Klan would be prosecuted for acts of abuse and intimidation,” the account, Israel War Room, wrote on X.

The Tuesday night incidents come after protesters set up an encampment inside the Brooklyn Museum on May 31, blocking entrances, hanging banners indoors, and defacing a sculpture with graffiti reading “Free Palestine” and “Free Gaza.” The museum said “there was damage to existing and newly installed artwork on our plaza, and members of our public safety staff were physically and verbally harassed.”


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