Saint Petersburg Jewish Agency offices defaced with swastikas

The Jewish Agency building in Saint Petersburg, Russia, was defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti last weekend, the agency said on Thursday.

Workers discovered on Sunday morning that vandals had spray-painted the facility with swastikas. A neighboring building was marked with the words “All of you – to Buchenwald” in very large letters.

Buchenwald was a concentration camp near Weimar, Germany, one of the largest used by the Nazis during World War II.

Amos Hermon, the chairman of The Jewish Agency Task Force on Anti-Semitism, said that “in recent days, we have witnessed a surge in anti-Semitic incidents, primarily in Western Europe. The incidents generally involve hateful graffiti targeting Jews, but some have also included violence,” according to a Jewish Agency statement.

Hermon added that the “Jewish Agency will continue to work with Jewish communities in order to combat anti-Semitic and anti-Israel phenomena around the world.”

Among recent incidents cited by Hermon was a demonstration opposing Holocaust commemoration during a Holocaust remembrance event in the Great Synagogue of Riga, Latvia on Wednesday and several synagogues were recently desecrated in Germany.

Earlier this week, the Jewish Agency announced the creation of a new fund to help combat anti-Semitism.

Saint Petersburg is home to some 100,000 Jews and, since the fall of the Soviet Union, has enjoyed a renaissance in Jewish life and the active presence of various international Jewish groups and movements.