A bike-riding vandal scrawled swastikas at a Brooklyn yeshiva early Wednesday, just hours after Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral race and raised fears of a new “normalization of antisemitism.”
Security staff called cops after discovering the hateful symbols drawn in red paint on the pillars and window of the Magen David Yeshiva on McDonald Avenue around 6 a.m., police said.
Surveillance video of the crime captured the lone suspect, who wore a fedora and was dressed in black, riding up to the yeshiva on a bicycle and stopping long enough to scrawl the swastikas — vandalism Gov. Kathy Hochul later called “an act of terrorism.”
“First of all, it’s hate graffiti,” Bob Moskiwitz, dispatcher for Flatbush Shomrim Patrol, told The Post. “I don’t care if it was on a mailbox or on a light pole — we would look into that too.
“But here you have a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, a Jewish school with a massive attendance…. It’s very traumatic.”
Workers wiped off the swastikas on the yeshiva windows and placed Israeli flags over the ones on the wall, he said.
Police had not announced an arrest in the case.
The hateful display sparked backlash from Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, who urged Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to immediately condemn it.
“Brooklyn’s Jewish community wakes up to two swastikas at Magen David Yeshiva in Gravesend,” said Malliotakis, who represents Staten Island and parts of Southern Brooklyn.
“While @NYPDHateCrimes investigates, the Mayor-elect must unequivocally condemn this hateful graffiti…Time to represent and protect ALL New Yorkers.”
Pinny Ringel, a district leader within Assembly District 48, which covers the area, chimed in that “Hate has no place in this city and should be condemned by everyone.”
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The disturbing discovery came hours after Jewish groups vowed to hold 34-year-old Mamdani – who frequently came under fire throughout his campaign for his anti-Israel ideology – “fully accountable.”
“Tonight the quiet normalization of antisemitism just got very loud. For years, Mayor-elect Mamdani’s activism was steeped in coded language about Jews, performative boycotts, exclusion, and overt hostility toward Israel,” Sarah Forman, executive director of New York Solidarity Network said.
“Now, his views gain a platform with real consequences for the city that is home to the largest Jewish community in the diaspora.”
Mamdani ultimately did condemn the vandalism.
“This is a disgusting and heartbreaking act of antisemitism, and it has no place in our beautiful city,” the mayor-elect wrote on X. “As mayor, I will always stand steadfast with our Jewish neighbors to root the scourge of antisemitism out of our city.”
At least one dad at the yeshiva said he wasn’t buying it.
“It’s not a coincidence that this happened hours after Mamdani won the election,” the man said. “Anyone who claims that it is is lying to themselves or having delusions.
“This was the statement that with the new boss in charge, we finally get to show our true colors.”
The governor, meanwhile, attended a press event with Democratic state Sen. Sam Sutton in Brooklyn Wednesday afternoon, decrying the incident as an “act of terrorism.”
“I view what happened today as an act of terrorism, a violation of our safety and our security… When we stand together, we are one community,” she said. “An attack on one, is an attack on all of us, and you will not get away with this.”
She also committed to adding another $20 million to the state budget for security grants for non-public schools.
According to NYPD stats, the five boroughs had seen 265 anti-Jewish hate crimes through Oct. 31 this year, down from 302 over the same time span last year.
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