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November 28, 2003
Swastika alarms rabbi
Anti-Semitic graffiti drawn on Seattle sidewalk.
PAT JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
A Seattle rabbi is hopeful that a hate crime that occurred over
the weekend was a random act and is not related to her commissioning
of a Vancouver woman to write a sefer Torah.
Rabbi Fern Feldman, spiritual leader of Kadima, a congregation that
bills itself as Seattle's oldest progressive Jewish community, walked
home Saturday afternoon in her University District neighborhood
about 4 p.m. As usual, she was wearing a kippah and, as it was Shabbat,
she also had on a tallit.
At 7 p.m., a housemate arrived home and informed the rabbi that
a swastika had been spray-painted on the sidewalk outside their
home. No witnesses saw the incident in progress.
Feldman said her immediate thought – after the safety of her
family and herself – was that that the defacement took place
just days after a story appeared in Seattle's Jewish Telegraph newspaper
about her congregation's controversial commissioning of a Vancouver
woman to write a sefer Torah for the congregation over the next
year.
Aviel Barclay, a Vancouver artist, writer and activist has intensively
studied sofrut, the ancient art of Torah scribes, which has been
traditionally limited to male practitioners. She is believed to
be the first woman in the modern era to undertake the creation of
a sefer Torah. Kadima has commissioned Barclay to create the Torah
and a story about the project appeared just last week in the Jewish
newspaper. Like some other religious processes, the writing of Torahs
is viewed by some Jews as a purview for men alone.
Feldman tried to wash off the silver spray-painted swastika, which
she estimated at about two feet in diameter, but was having little
success until her non-Jewish neighbors came by to help. Working
together, they removed the offensive symbol, and the neighbors used
the opportunity to teach their children about anti-Semitism, said
the rabbi.
Though the coincidence between the swastika and the newspaper article
about the Torah scroll led her to suspect it may have been the work
of traditionalists who oppose the idea of a woman writing a Torah,
Feldman suspects it was a more random act, because another family
on her block – non-Jews with a Jewish-sounding name –
also had a swastika painted on their garage the same day.
After an investigation by police, who term the act, under American
laws, "malicious harassment," they concluded that someone
may have obtained a neighborhood list such as a Block Watch membership
list or real estate documents and targeted households whose tenants
have traditionally Jewish-sounding names.
Though the graffiti was painted some time between 4 and 7 p.m. last
Saturday, Feldman noted it was not exactly broad daylight.
"It's pretty much pitch dark by quarter after 5 [at this time
of year]," she said.
Most alarming, she said, was that such an act took place just a
short time after she and her son had been walking on the street.
Though she is relieved to think that the swastika was not a statement
on her congregation's Torah project, it is still a very alarming
incident, she said, and an indication of anti-Semitism in Seattle,
where Feldman grew up.
"I felt really anxious because I had walked home with my son
wearing a kippah and a tallit," she said.
The silver lining was the supportive words and actions of her non-Jewish
neighbors and the seriousness with which she says police took the
case. Without any witnesses, however, police do not expect any quick
conclusion to the case.
Pat Johnson is a native Vancouverite, a journalist and
commentator.
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