The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned anti-Semitic vandalism in Bloomingburg, Sullivan County where an under-construction mikvah was defaced with swastikas and other hateful messages overnight between June 25 and 26.

�A mikvah is a central piece of Jewish life, and spray-painting swastikas and crude symbols strikes at the heart of traditional Jewish life and practice,� said Evan R. Bernstein, ADL New York Regional Director. �This incident is all the more troubling in the context in which it occurs as there is a growing Jewish community in Bloomingburg. We call on local elected officials and community leaders to denounce this bias incident.�

Mr. Bernstein added, �The Sullivan County Sherriff�s Office has launched a thorough investigation and we commend their responsiveness and diligence.�

ADL has been in contact the Sullivan County Sherriff�s Office and offered its security resources and assistance.

The mikvah desecration comes on the heels of a string of similar anti-Semitic incidents in the Hudson Valley. Most recently, swastikas were discovered spray-painted on a realtor�s sign and street sign in Rockland County on June 17. In the weeks prior, swastikas were discovered in a state park and on a neighborhood fence, and the words �No Jews� were spray-painted in a for-sale house.

ADL�s annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents found a 50 percent increase in instances of anti-Jewish vandalism across New York State from 2015 to 2016.

(Source: ADL)