Jewish Cemetery Trashed With 'MAGA' Graffiti On Election Eve

The Jewish community in Michigan expressed outrage after a Jewish cemetery was vandalized with pro-Trump slogans in the city where the president made his last campaign stop.

“Make no mistake, this heinous act was committed on the eve of the 2020 election to send an intimidating message to the president’s opponents, and particularly, Jewish voters,” the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus said in a statement. “But it has failed. Grand Rapids’ Jewish community will not be cowed by this vile attack on Ahavas Israel.”

Police in Grand Rapids, the second-most populous city in the state, responded Monday evening to reports of graffiti at the Ahavas Achim Cemetery, located about a mile west of the city’s downtown area. Authorities discovered “TRUMP” and “MAGA,” the abbreviated form of President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, spray-painted in red letters on cemetery tombstones.

Sgt. John Wittkowski, a spokesperson for the city police department, was quoted by regional news outlet MLive.com as saying the vandalism was “relatively new.” The finding came hours before Trump visited the city for one of his final stops on the campaign.

We are appalled by the reported desecration of gravestones at the Ahavas Israel Cemetery in Grand Rapids, MI. We are in close touch with the Jewish community and Law Enforcement to investigate this vandalism. pic.twitter.com/mVeGrlsWxE
— ADL Michigan (@ADLMichigan) November 2, 2020

A synagogue located on the city’s affluent east side was vandalized with antisemitic slogans roughly a year ago. Police have few leads in either case.

Trump is a staunch supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and helped broker the normalization of relations with a handful of Arab nations. The Detroit area of Michigan is home to one of the largest Arab populations outside the Middle East.

The president spoke at an event in Grand Rapids shortly after midnight Tuesday. Michigan is considered something of a battleground state with a tense political climate, though Trump won the state by a razor-thin margin against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Seizing the broader narrative from the Republican Party, Trump took the stage to rile against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s lockdown orders during the pandemic.

Apart from a sizeable Jewish community, Grand Rapids has a notable population of Sikhs. Parts of the city and surrounding areas are known for their conservative Christian views.