Jewish cemetery in Chicago is vandalized with swastikas and graffitied with: ‘Kanye was rite’
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A Jewish cemetery in a Chicago suburb has been vandalized with swastikas on the tombstones and graffiti reading, “Kanye was rite.”
Police were summoned Monday morning to Am Echod Jewish Cemetery in Waukegan, Illinois – 40 miles north of downtown Chicago.
They found that 16 large headstones had been spray-painted red and another 23 headstones had been defaced with ‘non-specific’ spray-painted graffiti.
The graffiti referenced the Chicago-raised rapper, who sparked outrage over the past month with his anti-Semitic remarks.
The vandal or vandals have not yet been arrested.
Ann Taylor, the mayor of Waukegan, a working-class industrial city of 89,000 mostly Hispanic people, said she was shocked by the graffiti on the graves.
Taylor said she was “deeply disturbed and angered by the hateful images sprayed on tombstones.”
Thirty-nine tombstones in Chicago’s northern suburbs were defaced this weekend
One of the tombstones was smashed with the words ‘Kanye was rite’
West, seen Oct. 21, has uttered a series of anti-Semitic tropes over the past month
She added, “Hate has no home in Waukegan; when such incidents occur, our marginalized neighbors become victims and our entire community suffers.
“I hope that our agents quickly locate and hold accountable the perpetrators of this despicable act, and I extend my full support to those directly affected by this vandalism.”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker tweeted, “I stand with Mayor Ann Taylor in condemning this evil act and offer the state my full support in pursuing justice. Illinois State Police officers are in contact with city leaders.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called it “reprehensible.”
“We are disgusted by this act of anti-Semitism. It should be investigated as a hate crime and we are in contact with the synagogue leadership and law enforcement,” they said.
“The desecration of these stones is reprehensible and we must all speak out against this attack.”
The action group Stop Anti-Semitism noted the link to the local rapper.
‘Kanye is Rite’ graffiti found painted red, resembling blood, on Jewish tombstones in a Chicago cemetery.
“We have no words for this depravity and evil.”
Born in Atlanta but moving to Chicago at age three, West has been spreading anti-Semitic tropes for the past month.
On Oct. 9, he tweeted that he would go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” referring to the military readiness condition “DEFCON.”
“I’m a little sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going to death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” the rapper wrote in a now-deleted tweet.
‘The funny thing is that I can’t actually be anti-Semitic, because black people are also Jewish.
West was challenged to apologize for his rhetoric, but repeatedly refused to back down.
West is photographed in Paris in October, after his controversial fashion show in which he paraded in a t-shirt with the words ‘White Lives Matter’
West vowed to ‘go dead con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE’ on October 9
His ex-wife Kim Kardashian condemned the rhetoric
A widely circulated photo shows a group of people giving a Nazi salute on the 405 freeway overpass in Los Angeles with a sign reading “Kanye is right about the Jews”
In response, companies and sponsors abandoned him, and the school he founded had to close when teachers quit.
West, 45, claimed he lost $2 billion in one day.
However, his hateful words resonated with his fans – and West continued to argue that the Jewish people controlled the media, politics and finances.
In Los Angeles, a group of emboldened anti-Semites hung a banner reading “Kanye is right about the Jews” over a highway on October 22, and similar words were projected at a college football stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, on October 30.