Supporters have rallied around Charlotte’s Jewish community after signs with a swastika and noose were found at Shalom Park on the morning of January 20.
While the images and words were upsetting, Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte CEO Adam Kolett said he’s been comforted by the solidarity expressed by many with Charlotte’s Jewish community.
“We are grateful when public leaders and educators and law enforcement and our neighbors can stand with us in protection of religious freedoms,” Kolett said Wednesday, January 21. The signs, which were posted around Shalom Park in south Charlotte, threatened to hang people and told people to join the Nazi party.
Shalom Park houses several Jewish organizations and schools on its 54 acres, according to its website, in addition to two synagogues. The placement of the signs on the campus’s buildings was strategic, Kolett said. One was posted near a Holocaust remembrance memorial, while another was posted near a school where kids and their families would have seen it in the morning, Kolett said.
The signs were found the week before International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27. “It’s a part of a broader pattern, one that has seen antisemitic incidents in our country reach a record high in 2024,” Kolett said. “It’s sustained escalation of Jew hatred and something that leaves folks feeling really unsettled, just to say the least.”
There were 9,354 antisemitic incidents in 2024, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks these incidents. Kolett said the imagery isn’t just upsetting for Jewish people. A Black security guard who works at the park was also disturbed by the use of the noose, Kolett said.
“I think that these images and words are pulled together with great thought,” he said. The signs were taken down quickly after they were discovered Tuesday morning before students could see them, Kolett said.
According to a news release from the Levine Jewish Community Center. law enforcement is investigating the incident.
Kolett said he received a call from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Estella Patterson to offer support and to inform Kolett the department would increase patrols in the area.
Although this seems to have been an isolated incident, Kolett said it’s important to respond to the hate message with education and support for one another. The Jewish Federation has an initiative called Outshine, which Kolett said has the goal of getting out ahead of antisemitism. “The question is not whether antisemitism is rising. We know the answer,” he said. “The question is whether, together, we can rise faster and choose to outshine it.”
This article appears courtesy of our media partner The Charlotte Observer.