Broad City actor Ilana Glazer canceled an event at a Brooklyn synagogue after anti-Semitic, threatening graffiti was found inside.
Glazer had planned a political event in which she was going to interview journalist Amy Goodman, as well as two New York state Senate candidates, Andrew Gounardes and Jim Gaughran. The event was a part of Glazer’s project The Generator Series, in which she interviews various politicians and activists to better understand what they’re doing to serve average people.
This event was to be held at the Union Temple in Prospect Heights, a historic temple built in the 1920s. It was meant to start at 8pm, but shortly before the event, graffiti was found in the stairwells.
“Kill all Jews,” as well as other anti-Semitic messages and slurs, were found on the second and fifth floor of the temple. At 8:30pm Glazer came out of the temple to tell the waiting crowd that they were canceling the event because of the graffiti. One attendee said Glazer, “didn’t feel comfortable ushering 200 people into the enclosed space.”
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This graffiti comes just a day after swastikas and the N-word were written in front of a home in Brooklyn Heights, as well as less than a week after the mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh which left 11 dead. It was the deadliest hate crime committed against Jewish people in American history.
Glazer said on Democracy Now! the following day that she canceled the event out of fear for the attendees’ safety.
“I can’t put these 200 people who came to listen in a safe space… in that danger,” Glazer said.
She also called out politicians for inciting white supremacist violence, saying, “Our politicians’ words, who stand for white supremacy … turn into action so quickly.”
The NYPD is investigating the graffiti as a hate crime, and at this time do not have any suspects.