Swastika spray-painted on sidewalk in NY suburb

Police are investigating an incident of anti-Semitic vandalism in a Rockland County, NY, community with a large ultra-Orthodox population.

The graffiti, consisting of a swastika and the words “Hail Hitler” spray-painted inside a Jewish star were found on a sidewalk Sunday in the town of Spring Valley, The Associated Press reported.

Rabbi Yisroel Kahan, a local rabbi, told AP he suspects that poorly educated teenagers are responsible for the vandalism, pointing to the misspelling of the Nazi slogan.

“This is something that’s hateful and it’s a shame and it will not be tolerated,” Kahan said. “It’s a combination of ignorance, hate, spitefulness.”

“We’re assuming it was teenagers cause the spelling was incorrect, but the message of hate is still there,” Kahan said.”We need to educate our children and our kids to understand to be tolerant of all races and all religions…senseless graffiti like that can hurt so much and it boils down to a lack of education.”

Some residents reported seeing two teenagers on skateboards over the weekend near the graffiti, radio station WCBS reported.

In July, there were two incidents of racist and anti-Semitic graffiti in nearby Pearl River.

Rockland County is approximately 50 miles north of New York City.