A private beach club in Queens closed its playground during the Labor Day weekend after anti-Semitic and racist graffiti were scrawled on the property in what authorities are investigating as a hate crime.
The Silver Gull Beach Club notified its members in an email late Friday that the playground would be closed “due to the recent and increasing incidence of vandalism from within the club,” according to the New York Times.
The graffiti included anti-black slurs, a swastika, and the words “gas chamber” and “Heil Hitler,” among other messages painted on a door, the newspaper reported.
US Park Police said the incident was being investigated as a bias crime. They believe the vandals broke into a shed used for arts programs, but declined to provide any additional information — including a confirmation of what the graffiti said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the crime “vile” and directed state police hate crime investigators to help determine who was behind the act.
“Look, this is one in an alarming pattern in increases in anti-Semitic activity. We have had about an 80 percent increase in anti-Semitic attacks,” the governor said during the West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn on Monday.
“It is frightening. It is part of this new national anger and anxiety and frustration where we are demonizing difference. I believe it’s the tone set by the president, who has unleashed the dogs of hatred,” Cuomo continued.
“Has he been anti-Semitic? No. But once you demonize differences, once you release the cancer of hate, it is uncontrollable. And you demonize Muslims, and you demonize Mexicans, and you demonize the new immigrants and people who are different,” he said.
“Well, you know what? We are all different. Jewish people are different than Italian Americans are different than Irish Americans are different than African Americans are different and Latino Americans are different,” Cuomo added.
“But the key is the word American. That is the common denominator and that is what the president forgets. That’s the cancer that is unleashed.”
The management of the club, which sits on a federal seashore, painted over the graffiti and police were called to the scene, according to the Times.
The vandals also trashed the room after leaving the hate-filled words and symbols while the club was open, Park Police Sgt. Richard Firrito told the paper.
Longtime member Harold Bretstein said the incident was painful.
“You can gloss it over. You can talk about it being a prank,” Bretstein, the son of Holocaust survivors, told the Times. “But it’s much more than a prank, especially in terms of the times we’re living in when you’re seeing a rise in anti-Semitism everywhere.”
Club general manager Jamie Blatman declined to comment to the Times, citing the ongoing police investigation.
A message was left seeking comment from the club.