Upstate NY mikvah construction site vandalized with swastikas

A Jewish religious immersion pool under construction in a new ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of an upstate New York village was vandalized with graffiti and swastikas.

The vandalism in at a mikvah in Bloomingburg, in the Catskills area, was discovered Sunday night. The new Satmar neighborhood was built to solve a housing shortage in the ultra-Orthodox community.

The local sheriff’s office has opened an investigation into the incident.

The incident comes after swastikas were discovered spray-painted on a realtor’s sign and street sign in suburban Rockland County, New York, on June 17. In the weeks prior to the recent incidents, swastikas were discovered in a state park and on a neighborhood fence, and the words “No Jews” were spray-painted in a house up for sale.

Just in : Bloomingburg,NY. Swastika painted inside a home. Police on scene have not issued a statement yet. pic.twitter.com/fiHj4c5K60

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— NYCPHOTOG (@nycphotog) June 26, 2017

The Anti-Defamation League condemned the vandalism.

“A mikvah is a central piece of Jewish life, and spray-painting swastikas and crude symbols strikes at the heart of traditional Jewish life and practice,” said Evan Bernstein, ADL New York regional director, in a statement. “This incident is all the more troubling in the context in which it occurs as there is a growing Jewish community in Bloomingburg. We call on local elected officials and community leaders to denounce this bias incident.”