Anti-Semitic graffiti found on FDR bust in Roosevelt borough in Monmouth County
By Cheryl Orson
Jan. 18, 2008

Anti-Semitic graffiti was found spray-painted on a pedestal holding a bust of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the borough of Roosevelt in Monmouth County on Jan. 9.

Officials said they believe this latest vandalism incident took place between 10 p.m. Jan. 8 and 6 a.m. Jan. 9. State Police are determining if this will considered bias crime. The Postal Service, which sustained damage to a post office, is also involved in the investigation.

The graffiti, which authorities said was spray-painted in a crude fashion and which was also found on the local post office at the corner of Rochdale Avenue (Route 571) and Farm Lane and two street signs on Farm Lane, includes a disparaging remark next to a star of David and what may be a swastika appearing as a square with a plus sign in it. The graffiti on the FDR pedestal itself, located in a park next to Roosevelt Public School and across Rochdale Avenue from the post office, included a hammer and sickle, possibly meant as a symbol of communism; the words "Ted was better," possibly a reference to the previous President Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt; and a reference to not fixing the Depression.

Acting Postmaster Rochelle Shipman discovered the post office was vandalized when she reported to work shortly before 7 a.m. Jan. 9, said Darleen Reid, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service. Spray-painted in green fluorescent paint on the post office wall facing Farm Lane was a disparaging comment about government. A vulgarity was also reported spray-painted on the post office's loading dock ramp. Shipman contacted the State Police and postal authorities.

After the post office vandalism was discovered, the graffiti on the two street signs on Farm Lane and at the FDR bust across Rochdale Avenue was found. While the approximately 10-foot granite pedestal was defaced on all four of its sides, the bronze FDR bust itself, about 6 feet tall, was untouched.

The Postal Service began cleaning the vandalism on its property on Jan. 9 with the borough promising to follow suit upon completion of the police investigation. A few years ago, the FDR monument and school area were vandalized with what was considered "annoying graffiti" at that time, not rising to the level of the current possibly anti-Semitic symbols and remarks.

The unique community was founded as an experimental farming-industrial cooperative, with the federal government transplanting mostly Jewish garment workers from New York City, to this rural site in the 1930s during Roosevelt's Depression-era administration. In deference to this circumstance, the cooperative was named for the president.

Mayor Elsbeth Battel said she suspects the vandal knows the history of Roosevelt quite well but also believes, as at least four colors of paint were used, more than one person might be involved.

Josh Pruzansky, executive vice president of Me'on HaTorah yeshiva, which is nearby in the borough, called the incident "disgusting" and not the way to solve disagreements between different groups of people.