PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — For the second time in a week, the Holocaust memorial in Center City was vandalized.
Police are looking for the person who dumped garbage at the base of the Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza at 16th and Arch streets.
The vandalism comes just days after someone spraypainted a swastika on the wall of a building adjacent to the memorial.
Both instances were captured on surveillance cameras.
“It’s a concern I think not just to people like me who are in this profession but to the broader Jewish community,” Eszter Kutas, executive director of the Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation, told NBC10. “It’s very upsetting to see another tide of hate.”
The latest incident happened on Tuesday. Authorities said a man dragged over a large trash bag and dumped the garbage at the base of the memorial.
“I don’t see a direct connection between the two [incidents] unless we think about the larger environmental context in which we see rising antisemitism affecting the American community,” Kutas noted.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, incidents of antisemitism have skyrocketed 360% since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October.
Police are investigating both incidents.