New York officials condemn "antisemitic" targeting of Brooklyn Museum director

New York, New York - Graffiti on the homes of Jewish leaders of the Brooklyn Museum protesting its links to Israel prompted concern Wednesday among several elected officials in New York who condemned it as antisemitic.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators associated with the 'Within Our Lifetime' protest group, drop a banner at the Brooklyn Museum on May 31, 2024 in New York City.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators associated with the 'Within Our Lifetime' protest group, drop a banner at the Brooklyn Museum on May 31, 2024 in New York City.  © Stephanie Keith/Getty Images/AFP STEPHANIE KEITH / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

Politicians including New York Mayor Eric Adams and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer shared images of a Brooklyn home covered in red paint, with a sign that included the name of the museum's director and the words "White Supremacist Zionist."

Schumer, who represents the state of New York, called the targeting "the face of hatred."

"Jewish Americans made to feel unsafe in their own home – just because they are Jewish," he said, speaking on the Senate floor.

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According to police sources cited by CNN, five homes in Manhattan and Brooklyn were targeted, and the incidents are under investigation by the city's Hate Crimes Task Force.

The New York Times said that along with the director of the museum, the institution's president and two administrators, all of whom identify as Jewish, were included. However, only Brooklyn Museum Director Anne Pasternak is in fact Jewish and representatives told The Foward's Arno Rosenfeld that "[there] was a lot of wide misreporting" on the incident.

The Brooklyn Museum said that a complaint had been filed and said "we are deeply troubled by these horrible acts of vandalism targeting museum leadership" in a statement.

At the end of May, some pro-Palestinian activists protested at the museum, calling on it to break all ties with Israel and to denounce the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Some thirty demonstrators were arrested.

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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest outside the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York on May 31, 2024.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest outside the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York on May 31, 2024.  © Leonardo Munoz / AFP

New York has been the stage of near-daily protests and marches from pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli supporters respectively since October 7.

That day's deadly attack by Hamas prompted Israel's relentless, now nine-month-long bloody war on Gaza that a UN investigation has called "a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population in Gaza."

New York also saw controversy earlier this week when activists demonstrated and lit flares in front of a Manhattan building where an exhibition on the Hamas-led attack on the Nova music festival was being held.

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Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents part of the city, called it "atrocious antisemitism – plain and simple."

"Antisemitism has no place in our city nor any broader movement that centers human dignity and liberation," she said.

Dozens of notes left by visitors at the exhibition advocated for the destruction of Gaza and the killing of civilians.

This article was amended on June 14 to correct the misreported identities of four out of five Brooklyn Museum officials targeted by the protest.

Cover photo: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images/AFP STEPHANIE KEITH / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

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