Austin Jewish Food Truck Vandalized With Hate Symbols Left Behind

SOUTH AUSTIN, TEXAS — The popular South Austin food truck named with a bit of wordplay, Jew Hungry? that serves up Jewish cuisine was recently vandalized in what appears to be a hate crime, according to reports.

Telling his story on a GoFundMe page where he launched a fundraiser to defray costs of repair, owner Scotty Grossbard said someone broke into his mobile diner parked on 3808 S. Congress Ave. sometime between the night of Oct. 31 or the following morning on Nov. 1. The entrepreneur was returning from vacation when he got a call alerting him to the break-in.

"Let me tell you, that was the LONGEST drive home ever!!" Grossbard wrote on the page. "The state inside of JewHungry? looked better than I thought on the outside, but my heart broke as I entered to survey the damage."

He described the busted-out window and scattered contents. But then he noticed what he labeled a "parting gift" — an iron cross and coins left on the driver's seat. He interpreted the scattered coins as an allusion to the stereotype of Jewish love of money. As for the cross, it's an infamous, circa-19th century German military medal dating upon which a swastika was superimposed in converting it into a Nazi symbol begun in the 1930s.

"Totally changing this to something more sinister," Grossbard added. "Not cool at all!!"

The incident came days after the Oct. 27 shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue that left 11 worshipers dead during Shabbat morning services. The incidents come amid a backdrop of rising anti-Semitism sentiment worldwide: The Anti-Defamation League, in its February annual report, found the number of anti-Semitic incidents was nearly 60 percent higher in 2017 than the previous year — the largest single-year increase on record and the second-highest number reported since ADL began officially tracking incident data in the 1970s.

But Grossbard said he is not intimidated and undeterred, vowing to remain selling his wares at the same location. In the meantime, he reached out to the community for help defraying the costs of repair to his food truck.

And this is where the notion that love trumps hate comes clearly into focus, despite the headline-grabbing acts of those intent on evil. Asking for a mere $2,000 for fixes, Grossbard has garnered more than $7,800 at last check on Monday evening.

"At the moment I've tallied up the cost of getting the most important things fixed and replaced to be around $2,000," Grossbard wrote. "I plan on opening daily to recoup this loss but anything donated will help IMMENSELY. Thank you from the bottom of my heart."

To donate to the GoFundMe campaign, click here.

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>>> Image via GoFundMe, a Patch promotional partner, shows the damage and hate symbol left at Scotty Grossbard's food truck.