A mural depicting Jewish history on the side of Canter’s Deli just outside West Hollywood in the Fairfax District was defaced with antisemitic graffiti, the American Defamation League of Los Angeles reported.
Canter’s Deli has been in business longer than Israel has existed as a state. The mural has since been painted over.
Supervisor Lindsey Horvath took to X this morning to express her disdain for the crime.
“The rise of antisemitism in our region & our country is alarming & unacceptable,” Horvath wrote. “We must root it out wherever it exists & stand w/ our Jewish community to actively show that they are not fighting this hatred alone.”
If this if the location of the graffiti was intended to intimidate a group of people, it would certainly qualify as a hate crime. However the messages criticizing the state of Israel are not antisemitic on their own. We need to be thoughtful here and avoid knee jerk claims of bigotry, less we eroded the sacrosanct principle of free political expression. Passing the IHRA definition of antisemitism which conflates criticism of Israel with anti Jewish bigotry was a huge mistake.
Knee-jerk claims of bigotry?? Considering it’s anti-Israel graffiti on a JEWISH deli I’d say that is antisemitic. It’s not like wrote it on Mendocino Farms!
You may be right
The reference to their only religion being capitalism plays to a lot of old anti-semetic tropes.