H EADLINES
Anti-Semitic Graffi ti Found in SEPTA Station
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
ANTI-SEMITIC AND anti-
Zionist messages were found in
the SEPTA Spring Garden station
on the morning of March 12.

Th e messages, written on
pillars on the subway platform,
called to “Boycott Israel,” “Make
America Great For Once” and
“#FreeMumia,” among other
slogans. “Israelites Are the
New Nazis,” one message read,
above images of a crossed-out
swastika and Magen David.

“I was very angered and sad-
dened,” said Jonathan Krause,
a lawyer and Anti-Defamation
League board member who
lives near the station with his
family. Krause did not see the
graffi ti himself; it had been
erased by the time he arrived.

But he saw photos of the mes-
sages posted on Facebook.

Krause noted the proximity of
the messages to Congregation
Rodeph Shalom, which is just a
short walk away.

SEPTA police reported that
the graffi ti was erased soon
aft er it had been reported to
them, and that an investigation
had been launched.

“We took care of that as
soon as it had been brought
to our attention,” said Heather
Redfern, a SEPTA public infor-
mation manager. According
to Th e Philadelphia Inquirer,
SEPTA was fi rst made aware
of the graffi ti around 6:30 a.m.,
and the graffi ti was removed
within two hours.

Th e Philadelphia chapter of
the ADL said that it has been in
contact with the Philadelphia
Police Department and SEPTA,
and posted a statement on the
graffi ti to its website.

“Absolutely no comparison
can be made between the com-
plex Israeli-Palestinian confl ict
and the atrocities committed
by the Nazis against the Jews.

Nor can Israeli actions or pol-
icies be characterized as acts
of ethnic cleansing or geno-
cide,” the statement read. Th at
charge, the statement contin-
ues, “serves to diminish the
signifi cance and uniqueness of
the Holocaust. To make such a
comparison constitutes blatant
hostility toward Jews, Jewish
history and the legitimacy of
the Jewish State of Israel.” ●
Photo courtesy of Grant Zachary Briskin
L O CAL
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