Sen. Ossoff Condemns Antisemitic Graffiti In Yom Kippur Address

SANDY SPRINGS, GA — At a Yom Kippur address at Temple Emanu-El in Sandy Springs, Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff condemned recent antisemtiic graffiti found in two different Cobb County high schools.

“So when at Pope High School in Marietta, Georgia, a swastika and a tribute to Adolf Hitler are scrawled on school walls … it must inflame in us the same passion for the survival of our people that burned in the hearts of the generation that emerged from the Shoah [Holocaust] and built a future for the Jewish people here in America, around the world, and the Land of Israel,” the 34-year-old Democratic senator said, according to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Ossoff grew up in the unincorporated area of Northlake, roughly 20 miles south of East Cobb.

Last week, antisemitic graffiti was found at Pope High School in Marietta. Just days later, almost identical graffiti was found at Lassiter High School in Marietta, both part of a social media trend encouraging hate speech in public places, according to a Cobb County School District statement. Both instances are being actively investigated, and school leaders say they are talking to students about hatred, and reinforcing expectations.

Leaders from the Jewish community were upset when the Cobb County District’s statement referred to the graffiti as “hateful” rather than antisemitic. Local rabbis and the Anti-Defamation League have asked the school board to present a comprehensive plan to them at its Sep. 23 meeting, which was postponed in respect of Yom Kippur after the Pope High School incident.

At the Yom Kippur sermon, Rabbi Spike Anderson told his congregation to condemn the graffiti and present a unified response, according to the AJC report.

Read the full AJC article here.