Teens Arrested in Mercer Island Anti-Semitism Graffiti Spree
There’s a long list of things that Jewish teenagers have to worry about in high school: zits, gym class, overbearing mothers, but now, students at Northwest Yeshiva High School on Mercer Island can add anti-Semitism to the list. On the eve of Yom Kippur, security cameras caught three teenage boys defacing the school building with swastikas and making “references to gas chambers,” according to SeattlePI.com. The Mercer Island community pitched in to make sure the building was clean of graffiti before Yom Kippur services began in the school’s sanctuary.
The Mercer Island Police Department did not take this crime lightly, as it followed a string of other acts of vandalism that took place earlier in the week. The Seattle Times reported that two of the teenagers have been caught and are now keeping each other company in juvenile detention. One 18-year-old remains on the loose, but Detective Pete Erickson told SeattlePI.com that boy’s attorney expects him to come forward. If only that was the end of it for the students at Northwest Yeshiva High School; basketball tryouts are right around the corner.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
