Jewish Cemetery outside Chicago Vandalized with Swastikas: ‘Kanye Was Rite’
A Jewish cemetery in the Chicago suburb of Waukegan, Ill. was vandalized Monday.
At least 16 headstones were painted with Swastikas and another 23 were defaced at the Am Echod (One Nation) cemetery. The message “Kanye Was Rite” was spray-painted on one headstone that marked the grave of a married couple.
“The desecration of graves is as low as it gets, and by the way, it’s also as cowardly as it gets,” a regional director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) from the Midwest told a local Fox News affiliate. According to the ADL, antisemitic incidents in Illinois have skyrocketed more than 400 percent in the past five years.
One Jewish community member, Larry Ellen, whose parents are buried in Am Echod reflected on “how angry they would be…My father lost at least four aunts in the Holocaust, his family was from Poland. They know more than anyone what a swastika means.”
Among the vandalized headstone was one belonging to a World War II Air Force veteran who flew “50 missions in a B17 as a bombardier,” Yellen noted.
Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor denounced the attack as having no place in their community.
“I am deeply disturbed and angered by the hateful imagery found spray-painted on headstones this morning in Am Echod Jewish Cemetery. Hate does not have a home in Waukegan; when such incidents occur, our marginalized neighbors are victimized, and our entire community suffers,” Taylor said in a statement. “I hope our officers promptly locate the perpetrators of this despicable act and hold them accountable, and I offer my full support to those directly impacted by this vandalism.”
A number of anti-semitic incidents have cropped up in the wake of rapper Kanye West’s repeated public attacks on the Jewish people, who he has accused of exploiting black entertainers.
Antisemitic messages were plastered across Jacksonville in late October with the words “Kanye is right about the jews” projected on the town’s football stadium and other city buildings. In Los Angeles the week before, a group of people hung banners across Interstate 405 bearing the same message, accompanied by Seig Heil hand gestures.
Kanye has faced a massive corporate backlash in the wake of his comments prompting him to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in lucrative sponsorship deals with The Gap and Adidas, among others.
