MLK Weekend Disrupted by Anti-Semitic Graffiti Spray-Painted in Midwood

Martin Luther King preached about peace, non-violence and tolerance. The holiday in his honor, however, has been marred by prejudice--and police are hunting for vandals who defaced a building a Brooklyn with ant-Semitic messages Saturday..

On a garage door at a home on E. 5th St. in the Midwood section of Brooklyn, reported the Daily News, residents woke to find a spray-painted swastikas and a message that said Die Jews.

We are very afraid, said the home's shaken owner, Sharon Miltz, 56, reported the Daily News. We don't know why this is happening.

A yeshiva, a local school for Jewish children, was also a target. Local leaders are condemning the acts and resident say they are tired of the hate messages.

I don't know what we're going to do about it, how we're going to deal with it, but we've got to find a strategy to find those people who are doing this all over the city and beyond the city, said Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind, according to NY1.

There have been several hate crimes directed towards Jews in New York and New Jersey. Over the past four months, at least nine such hate crimes have been reported in the metropolitan area, according to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. A jewerly store in Brooklyn has come under fire for selling earings that resemble swastikas. In Rutherford, N.J., a rabbi was woken up in the early morning hours last week to a Molotov cocktail being thrown into his bedroom.

In November, an Avenue J subway sign in Brooklyn was changed to read Avenue Jew, the word Nazi in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

Anyone with information on the case should contact the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS, or text CRIMES and then enter TIP577, or visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com.