BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA: Klara Firestone, a Holocaust survivor who serves as the manager of the Bedford Manor apartment building, was recently targeted with an antisemitic message that is now being investigated as a hate crime by the Beverly Hills Police Department.
The offensive message, which read 'kill Jews', is believed to be part of a series of similar graffiti found across the city. The incident occurred in the wake of the ongoing Hamas-Israel conflict, adding to the gravity of the situation.
Klara Firestone gives emotional testimony
Klara expressed her deep emotional distress, saying, "It's just terribly emotional and it's frightening to know that it's happening in my own home - literally in my own home."
She highlighted the indiscriminate nature of such acts, stating, "People who don't like Jews don't care whether you're old, young, or a grandmother. They don't care," ABC 7 reported.
Firestone herself resides in the building, a residence where 60 percent of the tenants are of Jewish heritage, with her 99-year-old mother, Renee Firestone, a Holocaust survivor who moved to the United States in 1948.
Firestone's grandmother tragically perished in Auschwitz, sent directly to the gas chambers. Klara openly embraces her Jewish identity and wears a Star of David.
Klara Firestone speaks out about the indiscriminate nature of hate
The Beverly Hills police received another report of vandalism just a mile from the apartment on the same day. The police have noted that the suspect(s) in both cases appear to be related based on the choice of words, style, and color of the spray paint, according to a police statement.
Both incidents are currently under investigation as hate crimes, according to the police. Since the discovery of the offensive messages, they have been promptly painted over.
Klara and her neighbors are devastated by the graffiti, which appeared just two weeks after a terrorist attack claimed the lives of more than 1,400 Israelis.
Firestone eloquently expressed the pain caused by hatred, "As a human being, anytime someone hates you, it hurts. Hate me for something I did, not for who I am because I can't change that."
