(JTA) — Several swastikas and other anti-Semitic messages were spray-painted on equipment at a playground across the street from an Orthodox yeshiva in the heavily haredi Orthodox township of Lakewood, New Jersey.
The graffiti discovered Thursday included the words “Hail Hitler,” the Asbury Park Press reported.
A spokesman for the Lakewood police said the department received a report of “bias criminal mischief” on Thursday afternoon and is investigating.
Mayor Menashe Miller condemned the vandalism, telling The Lakewood Scoop: “Lakewood Township and its police department takes bias crime very seriously. It is obvious that someone is trying to intimidate a particular segment of the community and we will not tolerate that sort of behavior.”
The vandalized playground is across the street from Yeshiva K’tana, a K-12 Jewish boys school.
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