Holocaust museums across US condemn Seattle police for not investigating 'genocide in Gaza' vandalism at Holocaust Center for Humanity as hate crime

Seven Holocaust museums across the US issued a joint statement denouncing the vandalism at their Seattle counterpart as a “straightforwardly antisemitic” act after the Seattle Police claimed the incident at the Emerald City location didn’t qualify as a hate crime. On Monday, the seven centers said in a joint statement, “The senseless scapegoating of Jews did not begin or end with the Holocaust. It’s been happening for thousands of years, and while the pretext may change, the antisemitic motivation is the same.”

Last month, staff at the Holocaust Center for Humanity in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood arrived the morning of June 18 to find the words, "Genocide in Gaza," written in red over a photo of a Holocaust survivor named Steve Adler. Adler, who passed away in 2019, spent his life teaching others about hate and antisemitism through speeches at local schools and the center until his death. He said in his survivor testimony, "Never again being silent, and speaking out when it could make a difference."

The Seattle Police Department originally told KOMO News that the incident was being investigated as a hate crime. However, the department later told KING 5 it was classifying the incident as “a non-criminal bias incident motivated by political ideology,” because the message “was written in pen and was wiped off a front window without causing damage or expense.” According to the department, “No explicit threat was made. The motivation for the graffiti was anger over the policy and practice of the Israeli government.”

The museum leaders added that they “strongly condemn this crime – and we also recognize it as an opportunity to educate. Holding Jews – much less a Holocaust museum – responsible for the wartime actions of a foreign government is unacceptable and straightforwardly antisemitic.” The statement continued, “Our mission to guard the memory of Holocaust Survivors and victims requires clarity on what does and does not constitute genocide, especially where misconceptions lead to hateful acts of antisemitism.”

The co-signers included the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York; the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, The Illinois Holocaust Museum, The Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles, The Holocaust and Humanity Center in Cincinnati, and the Zekelman Holocaust Center in Detroit. Dee Simon, CEO of the Seattle museum, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, “What happened to our Center was wrong but it did not meet the threshold of a ‘crime’ in Seattle.”

“I wish the person who sprayed the graffiti on our building would have taken the time to learn the lessons shared in our museum,” she continued. There have been dozens of antisemitic incidents in Washington state and hundreds more across the US targeting Jewish institutions since the Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7.

In May, over 2 dozen employees walked off the job at the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle following the opening of the museum’s “Confronting Hate Together,” about racism faced by the Asian, black, and Jewish communities. The museum only recently announced its reopening. Antisemitic activists were irked by an exhibit panel from the Jewish Historical Society showing the Herzl Ner Tamid Synagogue on Mercer Island after it had been vandalized by anti-Israel activists. The panel read, “Today, antisemitism is often disguised as anti-Zionism.” The panel noted that the phrase graffitied on the synagogue, “Stop the killing," was in spirit to the idea that “the Jews of Mercer Island could control the actions of the Israeli government.”