Screen capture from video of city workers cleaning anti-Semitic graffiti from the road outside the Gates of Prayer Cemetery, New Orleans, June 8, 2020. (WWL-TV)
Swastikas and a crossed-out Star of David were painted on the street in front of a New Orleans Jewish cemetery.
There was no damage inside the Gates of Prayer Cemetery on Joseph Street. Holocaust survivors and World War II veterans are buried there, according to the local CBS affiliate WWL-TV.
The Anti-Defamation League said it did not believe the incident was tied to any extremist group or ideology, and that the graffiti had been daubed over Sewerage and Water Board markings painted in the road, the report said.
The New Orleans Police Department is increasing patrols around synagogues and Jewish institutions.
“The Nazi imagery is painful, it brings up memories, it brings a sense of fear among our people,” Rabbi David Gerber of the Gates of Prayer Synagogue told the WDSU news channel. “We don’t believe this was indicative of any sort of threat or movement.”
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Screenshot of the Gates of Prayer Cemetery, New Orleans. (Google Maps)
City workers on Monday afternoon worked to clean the symbols from the street, covering them with pink paint.
Residents living near the cemetery first discovered the images on Friday.
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