- Leah Grossman confronted Mark Nakagawa outside her West Hollywood home
- The retired pastor claimed he tried to teach her about the history of the symbol
A retired California pastor has been caught on camera drawing a swastika on his Jewish neighbor’s messages.
Leah Grossman confronted her neighbor, Mark Nakagawa, on December 5 at 10:15 p.m., seconds after her doorbell camera caught him scribbling on a box of seltzer.
The single mother of two told CBS she was “stunned” when she saw it was a swastika, asking him “Is that a Nazi symbol?”
Nakagawa initially denied drawing the Swastika, but when confronted with the video evidence, he claimed he was trying to teach her about the symbol’s history.
Grossman said it was not her first meeting with Nakagawa and claimed he had previously called her a fascist at a homeowners meeting for hanging an Israeli flag from her balcony after the Oct. 7 attacks.
Nakagawa was caught on camera drawing on a box of seltzer at Grossman’s stores on December 5
He initially denied drawing the symbol, but later said he did it to teach her about its history as a Buddhist sign of peace
Speaking to CBS about the drawing, she said: ‘I just fell to pieces. Like I’ve never shaken like that before. My toes were shaking.
“I get emotional when I think about it because it reminds me of all the people I know, my family, my children.”
The incident was captured on her doorbell camera.
Nakagawa can be seen pausing near bags of her groceries outside her door before bending down to draw something in black pen on a box of seltzer.
Grossman then comes out her front door and calls out to him, asking him, “Is there a problem?”
He replies, “What?” and she asks again, “Is there a problem?” to which he said ‘No’.
She then immediately asked him, “Is that a Nazi symbol?”
He said “No” and then claimed he was “just walking by here” and didn’t know what the drawing was.
When Grossman said she saw it and told him about the camera, he still claimed he didn’t know what the drawing was.
Grossman is a single mother of two young boys and said she was intimidated by what she saw as an act of anti-Semitism.
She told CBS: ‘What’s happening in the world has really opened up a chasm of anti-Semitism and I think people are really feeling emboldened to push Jewish people around. People shouldn’t get away with this.’
Grossman said she was “shattered” by the incident, which she saw as an act of anti-Semitism
Nakagawa retired from his role as pastor at the United Methodist Church last year
Grossman claims Nakagawa previously called her a fascist at a homeowners meeting for hanging an Israeli flag from her balcony in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks
She also said that Nakagawa had previously called her a “fascist” for hanging an Israeli flag on her balcony.
When confronted by KCAL News about the incident, Nakagawa repeatedly insisted that he did not know how Grossman would react to the symbol and then claimed that he was trying to teach her about its history as a sign of peace.
The Swastika is known as the Nazi symbol of hatred, but is also a thousands-year-old symbol of well-being in Hinduism and for the footsteps of Buddha in Buddhism.
Nakagawa said: The way I went about it, in retrospect, wasn’t the right way to go about it. It was poor judgment on my part. I realize that.’
He also claimed that Grossman called him a fascist at the homeowners meeting.
Nakagawa left his job as pastor and senior leader at the United Methodist Church in California last year.
Grossman said he apologized to her, but she didn’t accept it. She told KTLA, “I know deep down that it’s completely self-serving and has nothing to do with any kind of remorse for what was done to me, what happened to my children.”