The New York Police Department (NYPD) is investigating after a “horrific” antisemitic incident in which red paint and graffiti were daubed on the private homes of Jewish leaders connected to the city’s Brooklyn Museum.
It has been reported that four officials connected to the museum were targeted, all of whom are either Jewish or have Jewish family members.
They include the museum’s director Anne Pasternak, and trustees Neil Simpkins, an executive with the private equity group Blackstone, who serves as treasurer on the museum's board, and Kimberly Panicek Trueblood, president and chief operating officer of the museum.
A banner reading “Anne Pasternak / Brooklyn Museum / White Supremacist Zionist” was hung in front of the director’s house and “Blood on Your Hands” was painted out in block letters on the ground.
No group is reported to have claimed responsibility for the vandalism. Police say they are searching for five perpetrators in connection with the incident.
In a statement to the media, the museum said it was “deeply troubled by these horrific acts targeting leaders connected to the museum”.
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It continued: “For two centuries, the Brooklyn Museum has worked to foster mutual understanding through art and culture, and we have always supported peaceful protest and open, respectful dialogue. Violence, vandalism, and intimidation have no place in that discourse.”
The incident has been condemned by political and sector leaders.
The mayor of New York, Eric Adams, wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “This is not peaceful protest or free speech. This is a crime, and it’s overt, unacceptable antisemitism. These actions will never be tolerated in New York City for any reason.”
“We stand with the Jewish community in the face of hate and will continue to fight antisemitism wherever it rears its ugly head,” said New York governor Kathy Hochul.
New York City comptroller Brad Lander said: “The cowards who did this are way over the line into antisemitism, harming the cause they claim to care about, and making everyone less safe.”
The Association of Art Museum Directors said: “We, the members of AAMD, unequivocally and forcefully condemn this antisemitic act.
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"As cultural leaders—and also as people of different backgrounds and experiences—we understand the emotion and anger the Israel-Hamas war has wrought. This, however, does not mean that protestors have unencumbered rights to attack individual persons in pursuit of their cause.
"Whether at someone’s home or at a museum, this behavior is inexcusable. It does tremendous disservice to discourse and conflict resolution, and the ends simply do not justify the means. We hope that the authorities will pursue and prosecute the perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law.”
Brooklyn Museum has been at the centre of a number of protests since the Israel-Gaza war broke out in October 2023.
Campaigners have accused the museum’s leadership, trustees, corporate sponsors and donors of links to Israel, and have called on the museum to disclose its investments and divest.
The vandalism incident follows a “de-occupation” protest at the museum on 31 May, which was organised by the Palestinian-led group Within Our Lifetime.
During the demonstration, which was attended by hundreds of people, protesters scaled the building and unfurled a banner from the roof of the museum.
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The protest was broken up by the NYPD. Within Our Lifetime subsequently accused the police of using brutality against protesters and called for “sustained action against Brooklyn Museum”.
There is no suggestion that the group was behind the vandalism.
The incident follows months of escalating protests and community tensions in response to the Israel-Gaza war.
Several other cultural institutions in New York have been the site of protest, including the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.
although the paint vandalism is obvious, which part of that banner is antisemitic? it says nothing about Judaism. it accuses her of racism.
Moreover, and regarding a pattern of activity, since the current assault on Gaza began, it has been police and right-wing gangs in the USA who have perpetrated physical violence against protesters, destroyed their encampments, and conducted disinformation activities aimed at discrediting protests. Police in New York City have violently attacked protesters and bystanders at Columbia University, New York University, and multiple campuses of City College, under the guise of ‘public safety’ and amidst accusations that opposition to genocide is antisemitic.
In the US, many universities and nearly all museums are non-profit corporations. The largest museums have significant investment portfolios and are governed by boards composed of corporate executives, bankers, and other elites with direct connections to armament or related industries. Hence the protests aimed at trustees and senior executives (regardless of personal ancestry) of the Whitney Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, et al.
The reported fact that ‘No group is reported to have claimed responsibility for the vandalism’ is interesting. An article in the Guardian reports that a similar attack might be by Russian proxies as part of a campaign aimed at destabilising the West, see https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/30/europe-on-high-alert-after-suspected-moscow-linked-arson-and-sabotage . Is this a similar case perhaps?
For the avoidance of doubt, this is unequivocally an antisemitic act. Since 7 October, red paint has been thrown at institutions including two Jewish primary schools in London. The paint in this picture is not just splashed but there is the inverted red triangle, which is used in Hamas propaganda videos showing Israelis marked for death. The red hands may be seen as ‘blood on your hands’ but in the context of Israel-Palestine history refers to the lynching of two Israelis in Ramallah in 2000 in which one of the lynchers was photographed waving his hands covered in the blood of his victims. Calling Pasternak a Zionist is a thin veil over the antisemitism. Contemporary anti-Zionism has its roots in Soviet anti-Zionism, which was a propaganda campaign designed to demonise Jews, and it is important to know this history and recognise when it’s used in this way.
And, of course, the inverted red triangle was used by the Nazis to classify political prisoners in the concentration camps. The symbols here are all overtly ‘kill the Jews’. The banner elevates it to ‘they deserve it’.
As matter of historical fact, Zionism is a political, Anglo-American colonialist movement that is explicitly ethnocentric. It is not an equivalent of Judaism.
The massacre of 37,000 Palestinian civilians is indeed blood on the hands of the IDF and its government. Genocide is not Judaic.
Notably, in opposition to the 1917 Balfour Declaration was Edwin Montagu, the only Jewish Cabinet minister at that time. He noted that as a result of the Zionist project, ‘Jews will hereafter be treated as foreigners in every country but Palestine.’