An Israeli-American man who served in the Israel Defense Forces was targeted in an act of antisemitic vandalism outside of his Missouri home this week.
Vandals lit three cars on fire outside of the man’s St. Louis home and scrawled “Death to the IDF” on his street, according to the Clayton Police Department. The attack occurred early Tuesday morning and authorities believe that the victim was “specifically targeted.”
“I reviewed graphic footage of vehicles belonging to the family and their friends. The vehicles were set on fire and destroyed. Hateful graffiti outside the family’s home accused him of being a murderer and called for death to the IDF,” said Leo Terrell, chairman of the Department of Justice Task Force to Combat Antisemitism.
“I am outraged. Antisemitic violence has no place in America, not in St. Louis and not anywhere. We will pursue every avenue to bring the perpetrators to justice. If you commit antisemitic hate crimes, you will be caught. And you will be held accountable.”
Authorities are investigating the incident as a hate crime. The FBI and St. Louis Regional Bomb and Arson Unit have also joined the investigation.
Danny Cohn, president and CEO of the local Jewish Federation of St. Louis, called the crime “a hateful act of intimidation and the consequence of the dangerous rise in antisemitism” and Clayton Mayor Bridget McAndrew said that the town would “not tolerate harassment, intimidation, or violence based on someone’s nationality, race, religion, or ideology.”
Antisemitic hate crimes are on the rise, and anti-Jewish incidents make up 69 percent of all religiously-motivated incidents in the U.S., according to the FBI’s recently-released 2024 Hate Crime Report. California, New Jersey, and New York have seen the most antisemitic hate crimes.
After Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, Missouri’s Jewish community experienced an uptick in antisemitic incidents. According to the Anti-Defamation League’s annual audit in 2023, antisemitic incidents more than doubled in Missouri that year.
“The exponential growth of antisemitic incidents in our state is unacceptable,” regional director of ADL Heartland Jordan Kadosh said at the time. “The fact that most of those incidents occurred after the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust — that’s chilling.”