LAKEWOOD TOWNSHIP, NJ (CNN) — Vandals defaced a Holocaust memorial at a New Jersey synagogue on Sunday with a banner featuring an anti-Semitic slur.
The banner used inflammatory language aimed at people of the Jewish faith, the Lakewood Township Police Department said.
New Jersey Attorney General Christopher Porrino called the vandalism “sickening.”
The vandalism comes after anti-Semitic fliers were posted throughout Lakewood, the Anti-Defamation League of New Jersey said. It is unclear when the fliers went up or if the same people were involved.
Both the banner and the fliers had links to a website run by a white nationalist group notorious for racist and bigoted campaigns against racial, ethnic and religious minorities in the United States.
“Residents, elected officials, community/religious leaders must offer full-throated condemnation of this anti-Semitic attack in #Lakewood,” the ADL New Jersey said.
New Jersey authorities are offering a $10,000 reward for information and conviction of those responsible, Porrino said.
The first quarter of 2017 has seen an 86% increase in anti-Semitic events across the country from the same time in 2016, according to the ADL’s annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents.
