'Ugly And Racist' Graffiti Found At Holocaust Museum In Glen Cove

GLEN COVE, NY — Racist graffiti has been found at a Glen Cove Holocaust museum and efforts are underway to find those responsible.

The Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County said in a statement that "ugly and racist" vandalism was found over the weekend at its property in Welwyn Preserve, county park. Both Nassau County and Glen Cove officials have been responsive, the organization said.

With a great deal of effort, this ugliness may be able to be physically cleaned off, but the hurt and fear will remain," the organization said.

The museum teaches that the Holocaust didn't begin with concentration camps and gas chambers, rather with name-calling, bullying and, yes, graffiti.

"Small acts of hate, if left unchecked, can lead to much bigger and more dangerous things."

State Sen. Jim Gaughran told Patch in a statement he was "sickened" by the news.

"The center is a sacred place and a sanctuary to many," Gaughran said. "This incident is a hateful attack on all our communities and should not be tolerated. I am united with the Glen Cove community as we disavow such ugly acts of hate."

The Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center calls itself the pre-eminent Holocaust resource on Long Island. It is one of the largest and most-comprehensive education program providers in the region. More than 200,000 students, teachers, workers and law enforcement personnel have participated in the museum's education programs.

More than 1 billion people worldwide harbor anti-Semitic attitudes, according to the Anti-Defamation League. In the organization's most recent audit of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States, it found there were nearly 1,900 such acts last year, including a dramatic increase in physical attacks.

The country saw a wave of anti-Semitic robocalls and a significant number of incidents at grade schools and on college campuses, the organization found. Furthermore, assault, harassment and vandalism against Jews remains at near-historic levels in the nation.