The Michigan home of U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, who is Jewish, was defaced with “Nazi” graffiti.
A picture of the tagging was posted online by Emanuel’s friend, former adviser to President Obama David Axelrod, who denounced the antisemitic attack.
The picture shows a wooden fence outside Emanuel’s Michigan home vandalized with the word “Nazis.”
HISTORIC RISE IN ANTISEMITISM HAS AMERICAN JEWS ON EDGE: ‘GENERATIONAL CHALLENGE’
The home of U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, who is Jewish, was defaced with “Nazi” graffiti. (Kyodo News via AP)
“This was scrawled on the fence outside the MI home of [Emanuel],” Axelrod wrote on X.
“It’s despicable. It’s disgusting,” Axelrod wrote. “It’s just one more flashing red light.”
“Stop the hate. Stop the antisemitism and Islamophobia,” he continued, warning “We know where it leads!”
Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago as well as Obama’s former chief of staff, was nominated to be U.S. ambassador to Japan by President Biden in 2021 and assumed his post in March 2022.
His father, pediatrician Benjamin Emanuel, immigrated to the U.S. from Israel with $13 in his pocket and set up a successful medical practice, the Chicago Sun-Times reported in 2019.
Former United Nations Human Rights Commission Delegate Jeffrey Robbins responded to Axelrod’s post, warning that, unfortunately, “it is no longer where it leads.”
“Sadly, we are there,” Robbins wrote.
Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment.
Emanuel told local press that his “family is very proud of how our friends, neighbors and the community have rallied to our support and in a singular voice in condemning hatred and bigotry.”
Emanuel also thanked “local law enforcement for their diligence, swiftness and seriousness in which they have addressed this crime.”
The graffiti comes amid an uptick in antisemitism across America following the deadly Oct. 7 surprise terror attacks in Israel by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas.
The graffiti comes amid an uptick in antisemitism across America following the deadly Oct. 7 surprise terror attacks in Israel by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Carolyn Normandin, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in Michigan, told Fox News Digital about the situation on the ground in her state. “We typically get [reports of] two to three incidents a week. In three weeks between Oct. 7 and Oct. 21, we got 61 [reports],” Normandin said.
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She was hesitant to label this a more than 600% increase in reporting, noting there have been duplicate reports of identical incidents. Nationwide, the ADL reported that antisemitic incidents rose 388% over the same period last year.
In addition to a number of threats delivered over social media, Normandin said her office has vetted and responded to in-person attacks. In one incident, rocks were thrown at Michigan Jews. In another, an individual called a doctor’s office and made threats related to the conflict in Israel against a Jewish physician.
Fox News Digital’s Beth Bailey contributed reporting.
Houston Keene is a politics writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to Houston.Keene@Fox.com and on Twitter: @HoustonKeene
