EJ’s Pizzeria, a kosher restaurant in the predominantly Jewish suburb of Skokie near Chicago, Illinois, was vandalized with a swastika over Thanksgiving weekend in the latest antisemitic incident since Hamas launched a war with Israel on October 7.
In a statement on Facebook, the pizzeria said:
In a disturbing incident, EJs Kosher Pizzeria in Skokie fell victim to an act of vandalism, as swastikas were sprayed on the establishment. The incident comes at a time when tensions surrounding events in Israel have heightened, and concerns about the rise of anti-Semitism persist globally.
Local authorities are investigating the incident as a hate crime. We at EJs Kosher Pizzeria express shock and dismay at the targeted act of hate.
This incident serves as a stark reminder of the challenges faced by businesses and communities in combating anti-Semitism.
We will continue to follow developments in the investigation.
If anyone recognizes the individual in the video, please call the Skokie Police department.
Local ABC affiliate WLS-7 reported:
The vandal was caught approaching the business on surveillance video. [Owner Moises] Wajchman said it happened on Thanksgiving, less than half an hour after the shop closed for the holiday.
“As he’s walking out, you see in the video, he puts his head down,” Wajchman said.
The act of vandalism happened as many in the Jewish community have been sharing concerns over a rise in hate crimes amid the Israel-Hamas war.
The restaurant released video of the alleged vandal on Facebook, from which the two screenshots below were taken:
Skokie was threatened by Nazis in 1978, when a group of extremists attempted to march through the area, which had a large population of Holocaust survivors. The neo-Nazis won a court case on the basis of the First Amendment but marched elsewhere.
The suburb became more diverse over the years, while a large and growing community of Orthodox Jews remained. In recent years, religious Muslims have moved to the area, partly because of the opening of a city-wide Muslim elementary school nearby.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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