The Michigan home of US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, who is Jewish, was defaced with “Nazi” graffiti.
A photo of the tagging was posted online by Emanuel’s friend, former President Obama adviser David Axelrod, who denounced the antisemitic attack.
The photo shows a wooden fence outside Emanuel’s home in Michigan defaced with the word “Nazis.”
HISTORIC RISE IN ANTISEMITISM HAS AMERICAN JEWS ON EDGE: ‘GENERATIONAL CHALLENGE’
The home of US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, who is Jewish, was defaced with “Nazi” graffiti. (Kyodo News via AP)
“It’s written on the fence outside MI’s house [Emanuel],” Axelrod wrote in X.
“This is disgusting. This is disgusting,” Axelrod wrote. “Just another flashing red light.”
“Stop the hate. Stop the antisemitism and Islamophobia,” he continued, warning “We know where it leads!”
Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago as well as Obama’s former chief of staff, was nominated to be the US ambassador to Japan by President Biden in 2021 and took up his post in March 2022.
His father, pediatrician Benjamin Emanuel, immigrated to the US from Israel with $13 in his pocket and set up a successful medical practice, the Chicago Sun-Times reported in 2019.
Former United Nations Human Rights Commission Delegate Jeffrey Robbins responded to Axelrod’s post, warning that, unfortunately, “this is not going anywhere.”
“Sadly, there we are,” Robbins wrote.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the State Department for comment.
Emanuel told the local newspaper that his “family is very proud of how our friends, neighbors and community have rallied in our support and with one voice in condemning hate and bigotry.”
Emanuel also thanked “local law enforcement for their diligence, speed and seriousness with which they addressed this crime.”
The graffiti comes amid a rise in antisemitism across America following the deadly October 7 surprise terror attack in Israel by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas.
The graffiti comes amid a rise in antisemitism across America following the deadly October 7 surprise terror attack in Israel by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Carolyn Normandin, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in Michigan, told Fox News Digital about the situation on the ground in her state. “We usually get it [reports of] two to three incidents a week. In the three weeks between Oct. 7 and Oct. 21, we got 61 [reports]Normandin said.
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He hesitates to attribute this to more than a 600% increase in reporting, as there are duplicate reports of similar incidents. Nationwide, the ADL reported that antisemitic incidents up 388% over the same period last year.
In addition to some threats delivered on social media, Normandin said his office has investigated and responded to personal attacks. In one incident, stones were thrown at Jews in Michigan. In another, an individual called a doctor’s office and made threats related to the conflict in Israel against a Jewish physician.
Beth Bailey of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
