(JTA) — The home of a Jewish family in Las Vegas was tagged with the phrase “Heil Hitler” and a swastika in what police believe is a random attack by teenagers rather than a hate crime.
Sara Attia, a mother of three, said she called police after finding the anti-Semitic graffiti drawn on the door of her apartment Monday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Monday.
She was already planning to immigrate to Israel when the incident happened, The Times of Israel reported.
The incident happened days after several swastikas were discovered sprayed on the home of a non-Jewish Las Vegas family. Police did not consider that incident a hate crime, saying it was more likely a random attack by teenagers, The Times of Israel said.
Attia, 27, who speaks Hebrew, said she is open about being Jewish and has no doubt that her home was deliberately targeted, the report said. But police did not consider it a hate crime and believed it was more likely a random attack by teens, according to media reports.
Police officers came to her children’s Chabad day school and said they would step up patrols in the area, the Review-Journal reported.
Attia told the Review-Journal she hopes that the vandalism was just “some dumb teenager who doesn’t know any better. A joke or not, it wasn’t funny,” she said.
Attia told Ynet that she is leaving the United States due to anti-Semitism.
Officials have pointed to a rise in anti-Semitism in the U.S. in recent years, culminating with the shooting of 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue last month. The Anti-Defamation League identified 1,986 anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. in 2017, up from 1,267 in 2016, and also reported a major increase in anti-Semitic online harassment.
