Anti-Semitic graffiti calling for a “Jexit” was found spray-painted on a teachers’ union building on Tuesday night and Wednesday.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), shared a photo on Twitter of yellow-spray paint stating, “I want Jexit!” on the AFT headquarters in Washington, D.C.:
Here is the picture: pic.twitter.com/HyhsCnHKPZ
— Randi Weingarten 🇺🇦🇺🇸💪🏿👩🎓 (@rweingarten) December 12, 2018
The word “Jexit” appears to a play on the word “Brexit,” suggesting that the perpetrator wants a “Jew exit.”
“Defacing our community with hateful rhetoric is meant to intimidate, otherize and sow fear, and to divide our community and make people feel unsafe and unwelcome where they live and work,” Weingarten said in a statement. “But this type of hate crime does just the opposite: It mobilizes us to come together and unite around the common causes of tolerance and peace, and to continue fighting for a more inclusive, more just world.”
The AFT’s website adds that the term “Jexit” is a common anti-Semitic slur that “is popular in online spaces that cater to hate and nationalism.”
Weingarten is the wife of Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, the senior rabbi of New York’s Congregation Beth Simhat Torah.
The investigation remains ongoing.
