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Two stores at Scarsdale shopping mall hit with anti-Israel graffiti
(New York Jewish Week) – Two stores in a shopping plaza in Scarsdale, north of New York City, were vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti on Wednesday evening.
The phrase “Genocide supporters” was scrawled in black paint across the front window of an ice cream and gift shop known as Scoop Shop, photos from the scene showed, with the store’s brightly colored pillows and stuffed animals visible in the store’s interior. A clothing store called Cheryl’s Closet in the same plaza, the Golden Horseshoe Shopping Mall, was vandalized with the same message.
Scoop shop owner Adam Deutsch, who is Jewish, said he believes the store was targeted due to a sign saying “We stand with Israel” that has been in the store’s window for a few months.
Some pro-Palestinian groups in New York City have urged followers to boycott businesses with ties to Israel, but Deutsch said he had not heard that activists were targeting his store before the vandalism, which occurred overnight and was discovered Thursday morning.
“This was a shock to me when I woke up this morning,” he told the New York Jewish Week by phone.
He believes the shop was targeted due to the pro-Israel sign, not because of his Jewish identity. “What they wrote seemed like it was because of the sign, not because of me, but who knows,” he said.
Cheryl’s Closet, an upscale women’s boutique, is also believed to have Jewish owners, ABC 7 New York reports. When reached by the New York Jewish Week, an employee at the store said she was unable to comment on the incident.
The shopping mall is also home to a kosher supermarket, Seasons, which was not defaced.
There was no permanent damage to the stores and the graffiti has been removed. Scarsdale Mayor Justin Arest and the Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah have visited the shopping plaza, which is across the street from the Jewish Community Center of Mid-Westchester.
A rally by local Israel supporters is planned at the mall for 4 p.m. Thursday, Deutsch said.
Collins Coyne of the New Rochelle police department said detectives had visited the stores and were investigating. “No one was injured, there’s no damage but it’s obviously very hurtful to the community,” he said. The mall is located on the border of New Rochelle and Scarsdale and falls within the New Rochelle police department’s jurisdiction.
The area’s congressional representative, Jamaal Bowman, who has come under fire for criticism of Israel in recent months, condemned the incident, as did his challenger in next year’s primary, George Latimer. Latimer will attend the rally on Thursday afternoon, CBS reported.
Antisemitism has spiked in New York City since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, according to NYPD data, although comparable, up-to-date data is not available for the rest of New York State. Jewish groups have reported a surge in antisemitism nationally and online since the terror attack, when Hamas killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 240 others hostage.
New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul, citing the spike in hate since Oct. 7, said in a Thursday statement that she was proposing $60 million in new funding for groups at risk of hate crimes, and adding dozens of new offenses that could qualify as hate crimes, including graffiti.
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The post Two stores at Scarsdale shopping mall hit with anti-Israel graffiti appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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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.