Los Angeles Jewish Mural Defaced With Anti-Israel Graffiti
by Joshua Levitt
An outdoor painted mural at the Arbeter Ring – Workmen’s Circle campus on Robertson Blvd, in Los Angeles, was defaced with anti-Israel graffiti that read “Free Palestine!!!!,” LA’s Jewish Journal reported on Thursday.
The newspaper published photos taken by a Pico-Robertson resident, showing the graffiti spanning nearly the entire length of the 60-feet-long wall.
The mural, entitled, “A shenere un besere velt,” a Yiddish phrase meaning, “A more beautiful and better world,” depicts cultural, biblical and historical imagery, the Jewish Journal said, including drawings of a menorah, Israelites wandering the Sinai, and a young girl waving Israeli and American flags. It was completed by artist Elisio Art Silval in 1998, the newspaper said.
The newspaper quoted Robert Adler-Peckerar, executive director of the L.A.-based organization Yiddishkayt, who said, “I feel like this [the graffiti] indicates something much more about thoughtlessness than about an actual commitment to a free Palestine.”
Adler-Peckerar said the venue chosen for the graffiti, of all the Jewish institutions in Los Angeles, also showed “a tremendous amount of cultural illiteracy” on the part of the vandals because of Arbeter Ring – Workmen’s Circle’s long history as a very progressive social justice and union organization.