NORTHEAST PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The evidence is gone, but the damage is done. The owner of a kosher meat shop in Northeast Philadelphia arrived Thursday morning to find symbols of hate – swastikas – painted all over the windows.
It has rattled the entire neighborhood.
Merryl Landers has worked in the hair salon next door for over 30 years. She says she’s never seen anything like this.
Blood red swastikas were plastered across the windows of Simon’s Kosher Meats.
The owner’s family fled Ukraine ahead of the Nazis in 1941.
Simon Rachshtut knows what hate looks like and knows the symbolic power of the swastika.
“This is very bothering,” he said. “As a Jewish person I feel very bad. I say this is a shame, it’s no good. Not in America.”
Detectives were on the scene Thursday morning gathering evidence, including surveillance video from nearby shops.
This appears to be a one-time incident rather than part of a pattern of hate crimes.
Some speculate it was malicious mischief perpetrated by an ignorant prankster, especially since the swastikas were painted backwards.
Like many city neighborhoods this one has evolved over the years into a melting pot of ethnicities and religions.
Longtime residents take pride in the fact that everyone gets along. So something like this is very upsetting.
Fortunately the paint used was water soluble and it washed right off. But the hurt this has caused won’t be so easily erased.
Report and video by 6abc.com