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Jewish Homes Defaced With Swastikas in Baltimore, Police Investigating
Swastikas graffitied in the Glen neighborhood of Baltimore. Photo: Screenshot
Baltimore’s mayor and police chief have denounced a recent slew of antisemitic incidents in which the homes of Jewish families in the Glen section of the city were graffitied with swastikas.
“Our Baltimore Jewish community has endured violence, vandalism, and other acts of hate that only seek to intimidate and threaten,” Mayor Brandon Scott (D) said in a statement issued on Thursday. “To those individuals who are responsible, we only have one message: these antisemitic acts are despicable, and you will be held accountable.”
As many as 10 homes were targeted in the spree of hate, according to a local NBC affiliate, shocking locals who were dismayed that the incidents occurred in their neighborhood. Meanwhile, Baltimore law enforcement officials, who this week decried similar incidents that struck the city in recent months, have opened a hate crime investigation to find and bring the perpetrators to justice.
“We will not tolerate any form of hate, towards any community or any person in our city,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said on Thursday. “I remain resolute that the [Baltimore Police Department] will investigate all acts of hate, intimidation, or violence towards anyone or any community. Any individual found to be responsible will and must be held accountable, and we will work with our local, state, and federal partners to pursue justice to the fullest extent of the law for these incidents.”
Antisemitism on the streets of Baltimore, one of the most progressive cities in the US, has brutalized the Jewish community there, according to numerous reports by local outlets and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which has documented incidents of vandalism, harassment, and assault.
In December, for example, vandals twice “slashed” a pro-Israel sign displayed on the lawn of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation in Pikesville, local media reported. In a later incident in March, a gang of teenagers mugged and assaulted two Jewish men who were walking into their synagogue. The youths reportedly chased one of the men and stole a “large amount of cash” from the other. More recently, an Israeli flag was ripped and stolen from the porch of a doctor’s office earlier this month.
Across the state of Maryland, which had the seventh most antisemitic incidents in the US in 2023, outrages targeting the Jewish community increased 211 percent compared to the prior year, according to the ADL’s latest data. Virginia, a neighboring state, saw a 223 percent increase in 2023, a problem lawmakers have sought to address by applying the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism to hate crimes investigations. Across the US, antisemitic incidents spiked to record levels following Hamas’ massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7.
“We’re seeing it on our college campuses in the area,” Baltimore Jewish Council executive director Howard Libit told the Baltimore Jewish Times in December amid a torrent of anti-Jewish hatred which followed Hamas’ atrocities. “We’re seeing it in some of high schools. We’re seeing it on social media in particular. Everyone involved in social media, whether they’re here or anywhere in the world, is seeing a huge spike in antisemitism.”
Baltimore is not the only major city where antisemitism is rampant. According to an Algemeiner analysis of New York City Police Department (NYPD) Crime Statistics data, between October and April, there were 285 antisemitic hate crimes in New York City’s five boroughs, a figure just slightly lower than the total recorded in all of 2022.
Recently, the district attorney’s office of Manhattan indicted a sixth man for participating in a May 2021 gang assault on Joseph “Joey” Borgen, a Long Island resident who had been attending a pro-Israel demonstration when he was brutally attacked by men screaming antisemitic epithets.
Borgen was wearing a kippah while walking in Manhattan when Mohammed Othman, along with five other men, ambushed him without being provoked. They also shouted antisemitic slurs at and discharged pepper-spray into the eyes of the pro-Israel advocate, who suffered a concussion, wrist injury, black eye, and bruises all over his body during the attack. Two years after the attack, Borgen told The Algemeiner that the injuries he sustained that day, both physical and psychological, continue to diminish his quality of life.
Across the US, 8,873 antisemitic incidents were perpetrated against Jewish the people— an average of 24 every day — in 2023, amounting to a year unlike any experienced by the American Jewish community since the organization began tracking such data on antisemitic outrages in 1979. Incidents of harassment, vandalism, and assault all spiked by double and triple digits, with California, New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Massachusetts accounting for nearly half, or 48 percent, of all that occurred.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Jewish Homes Defaced With Swastikas in Baltimore, Police Investigating first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.