The Michigan home of Rahm Emanuel, the American ambassador to Japan who is Jewish, has been defaced with “Nazi” graffiti.
The tagged photo was posted online by Emanuel’s friend and former adviser to President Obama, David Axelrod, who denounced the anti-Semitic attack.
Photos show a wooden fence outside Mr. Emanuel’s Michigan home vandalized with the word “Nazi” carved into it.
Historic rise in anti-Semitism puts American Jews at risk: ‘An intergenerational challenge’
The home of Rahm Emanuel, the American ambassador to Japan who is Jewish, has been defaced with “Nazi” graffiti. (via Kyodo News AP)
“This was scrawled on the fence outside my house in Michigan.” [Emanuel]” Axelrod wrote to X.
“It’s despicable. It’s disgusting,” Axelrod wrote. “The red light just flashed again.”
“Stop the hate. Stop the anti-Semitism and Islamophobia,” he continued, warning, “We know where it’s going!”
Emanuel, a former Chicago mayor and President Obama’s chief of staff, was nominated by President Biden in 2021 to serve as U.S. ambassador to Japan and assumed office in March 2022.
His father, pediatrician Benjamin Emanuel, immigrated to the United States from Israel with $13 in his pocket and founded a successful medical practice, the Chicago Sun-Times reported in 2019.
Former United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Jeffrey Robbins responded to Axelrod’s post, warning that, unfortunately, “we are no longer going in that direction.”
“Unfortunately, that’s where we are,” Robbins wrote.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the State Department for comment.
emmanuel spoke to local media His “family is extremely proud that our friends, neighbors, and community have rallied with a unique voice to support us and denounce hate and bigotry.”
Emanuel also thanked “local law enforcement for their diligence, promptness and seriousness in dealing with this crime.”
The graffiti comes amid rising anti-Semitism across the United States following a deadly surprise terrorist attack in Israel on October 7 by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
The graffiti comes amid rising anti-Semitism across the United States following a deadly surprise terrorist attack in Israel on October 7 by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Carolyn Normandin, regional director for the Michigan Anti-Defamation League (ADL), spoke to FOX News Digital about the situation on the ground in the state. “We usually [reports of] Two to three incidents occur per week. In his three weeks from Oct. 7 to Oct. 21, he got 61. [reports]” said Normandin.
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She was hesitant to consider this an increase of more than 600% in the number of reports, noting that there were duplicate reports of the same incident. Nationally, ADL reported: anti-semitic incident This is an increase of 388% compared to the same period last year.
Normandin said her office reviewed and responded to the direct attacks, in addition to numerous threats distributed through social media. In one incident, stones were thrown at Jews in Michigan. In another incident, a person called a clinic and threatened a Jewish doctor in connection with the Israeli conflict.
Fox News Digital’s Beth Bailey contributed reporting.
