18 | NOVEMBER 12 • 2020 

A

Jewish cemetery in 
Grand Rapids was 
found vandalized 
with pro-Trump graffiti on 
Monday, Nov. 2 — the day 
before Election Day, as President 
Trump prepared to close out his 
reelection campaign in Grand 
Rapids. 
A caretaker at the Ahavas 
Israel Cemetery, which is man-
aged by Congregation Ahavas 
Israel in Grand Rapids, discov-
ered the graffiti at 8 a.m. 
The graffiti spelled out 
“TRUMP” and “MAGA
” on 
multiple tombstones but does 
not include any antisemitic lan-
guage or symbols. 
“There were no other words 
or symbols painted that would 
clearly indicate that it was 
an antisemitic 
attack,
” Rabbi 
David Krishef 
of Congregation 
Ahavas Israel told 
the JN. “It may just 
have been oppor-
tunistic vandalism 
against a cemetery 
which is isolated 
and hard to see from the road, 
on Halloween weekend, not an 
attack against the Jewish com-

munity. We don’
t know.
”
Carolyn Normandin, Anti-
Defamation League-Michigan 
regional director, told the Jewish 
News it was unclear whether the 
graffiti would rise to the level 
of a hate crime under Michigan 
law. A tweet from ADL-MI 
sharing photos of the graffiti 
went viral. 
“It hurts when somebody 
defaces your cemetery, no mat-
ter what their motivation may 
have been,
” Krishef said. “It 
feels like an attack. Whether it 
is a deliberate attack, we don’
t 
know.
” 
But Krishef also thought back 
to a different incident at another 
Midwestern Jewish congrega-
tion: the 2019 fire that destroyed 
a synagogue in Duluth, Minn., 
where his wife used to live. 
That story attracted inter-
national media attention, and 
“every interview focused on 
antisemitism,
” Krishef said. But 
the culprit was soon revealed 
to be a homeless man who had 
built a fire in the synagogue’
s 
sukkah to keep warm and 
couldn’
t put it out. The larger 
media angle had been not only 
false, but potentially harmful. 
It’
s for this reason that Krishef 

is deliberately not calling the 
cemetery vandalism an act of 
antisemitism. 
“I don’
t want to feed that kind 
of frenzy, where we see some-
thing the way we want to see 
it because it fits the worldview 
that we believe in,
” he said. “My 
first reaction was, we better be 
careful with this. We want to get 
it right.
” 
Within the congregation, 
“people are angry, people 
are upset, people are afraid,
” 
Krishef said. He thanked 
Rabbi Asher Lopatin, exec-
utive director of the Jewish 
Community Relations Council/
AJC, and Steven Ingber, COO 
of the Jewish Federation of 
Metropolitan Detroit, for attend-
ing Ahavas Israel’
s Tuesday 
morning minyan on Zoom and 
showing their support for the 
synagogue. 
Edward Miller, cemetery 
chair for Congregation Ahavas 
Israel, said, “When I received 
the call about the vandalism, I 
was shocked and taken aback 
that something like this could 
happen to our cemetery. The 
response from the community, 
both local and from abroad, has 
been overwhelming and hum-

bling.
” 
Grand Rapids law enforce-
ment are currently investigating 
the incident, but it’
s unclear 
what, if any, leads they have to 
work with. 
ADL-MI announced a reward 
of up to $3,000 for informa-
tion leading to the arrest and 
conviction of the individual or 
individuals responsible for the 
vandalism. 
“We are grateful to the com-
munity for its support and con-
cern, and to the Grand Rapids 
Police Department for taking 
this incident seriously and inves-
tigating it,
” Normandin said in a 
press release.
A silver lining came in the 
outpouring of community 
response from all denomina-
tions. 
Besides words of support, 
there was also action. Before 
the synagogue could even send 
a cleanup crew to the cemetery, 
anonymous volunteers scrubbed 
off the graffiti themselves.
“I wish I knew who they were 
so I could thank them in per-
son, Krishef said. “I had no idea 
people would come so quickly. 
I was really astonished by the 
response.
” 

Pro-Trump graffi
 ti was ‘not necessarily’ antisemitism.

ANDREW LAPIN EDITOR

Grand Rapids Cemetery 
Vandalized, But Community
Cleans It Up

PHOTO COURTESY OF ADL MICHIGAN

The graffiti spelled out 

"TRUMP" and "MAGA" 

but did not contain any 

antisemitic language. 

Rabbi David 
J.B. Krishef, 
Congregation 
Ahavas Israel

COURTESY OF RABBI DAVID J.B. KRISHEF

