Editor's Note: This article was updated on March 29, 2023.
A sign on the Blacksburg Jewish Community Center’s building has been vandalized, according to WSLS.
“They scratched out parts of our sign and wrote things that were racist and anti-semitic,” said Eric Hallerman, president of the community center, in an interview with WSLS. “That’s hurtful, that’s hateful, that’s unnecessary.”
According to Hallerman, before discovering the vandalization, he noticed a member of a church near the center trying to scrub the sign clean. Hallerman also said that people have been supporting him on social media. Kevin Altizer, owner of sign shop Signarama in Christiansburg, reached out and offered to replace the sign without charge.
“We didn’t like what we saw,” Altizer said. “There’s no, there’s never a reason for that. So we just wanted to help out.”
Altizer said he will be making the new sign as “vandal-proof as possible” and use durable material.
In an interview with WDBJ7, Altizer also said the process typically takes three days, but will complete the sign in one day.
“When we’re seeing that the community is rallying behind us, it’s actually a very heartening moment,” Hallerman said. “It’s very positive and it reaffirms the notion that we belong to this community and this is a place we like to call our home.”
The Blacksburg Police Department’s investigation into the incident is ongoing.
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