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In a rare anti-Semitic incident for Somerville and its surrounding region, police found a swastika and the word "Jews" painted at the borough's New Jersey Transit station this week. At 11:56 p.m. on Sunday, a Somerville police officer on his normal patrol shift spotted the graffiti in black spray paint on a concrete wall at the train station, Somerville Capt. George Fazio said.

Fazio said it was the first swastika recorded in Somerville in more than 15 years. Somerset County, where the borough is located, saw seven of New Jersey's nation-high 238 anti-Semitic incidents in 2008, according to the Anti-Defamation League's annual audit, while nearby Hunterdon and Warren counties experienced just one incident apiece.

Though the local Jewish community has been fortunate about the low number of recent anti-Semitic incidents, the Jewish Federation of Somerset, Hunterdon, and Warren Counties "acts immediately when there is one," Executive Director Diane Naar said. In reaction to the swastika, she said the federation offered Somerville police help with educating the community on tolerance and diversity if such efforts become necessary in the future.

"[The swastika is] an act of ignorance, and we are ready to provide the education and the intervention," Naar said.

Etzion Neuer, regional director of the ADL's New Jersey Region, speculated that a drawing to the right of the word "Jews" in the graffiti is a "poorly drawn" version of a Celtic Cross, a symbol used by white supremacist groups.

As the symbol is not as well known as the swastika, its inclusion with the swastika and the word Jews would suggest that "the perpetrator might be someone with a deeper commitment to extremist ideology," Neuer said.

Though New Jersey Transit is responsible for cleaning up graffiti on its property, Fazio said, the Borough of Somerville took immediate action and covered the swastika.

"Seeing that this was so visible, the Borough of Somerville took it upon ourselves to paint over it," he said.

The incident is under investigation by a juvenile officer who is performing interviews, and there are not yet any suspects, Fazio said.

Compared with the nine combined anti-Semitic incidents for Somerset, Hunterdon, and Warren counties in 2008, Middlesex County, one of Somerset County's neighbors, saw 38 incidents on its own, in addition to a state-high 43 in Monmouth County and 28 in Ocean County, according to the ADL audit.

Somerset, Hunterdon, and Warren counties have significantly lower Jewish populations than counties like Middlesex, Monmouth, and Ocean, which naturally leads to a lower number of anti-Semitic incidents, Neuer explained. Over the years, Monmouth County residents and officials have also displayed a special commitment to reporting bias crimes, leading to higher official totals, he said.

"When an incident like this occurs, it's a jarring and painful reminder that hate does exist," Neuer said.

The Somerville Police Department's last record of a swastika in town dates back to 1993, Fazio said.

"It's unusual for Somerville," Fazio said of the swastika.

"I don't think we have a problem [of anti-Semitism] in Somerville right now," he added.

If the federation were to promote increased local education on tolerance and diversity, those efforts would take place in conjunction with Raritan Valley Community College's Institute of Holocaust & Genocide Studies, Naar said, explaining that the federation works all year long on teaching tolerance with RVCC.

The federation is also prepared to have George Blank, one of its past presidents, speak at schools about tolerance if the anti-Semitic graffiti in Somerville is found to be a juvenile crime, Naar said.

"We have a wide range of opportunities to talk about hate crimes and talk about tolerance and difference," she said.

Neuer said that in addition to having vigilant law enforcement officials, the federation's commitment to education is a critical component to the process of dealing with local anti-Semitism.

"There are many different pieces that have to be put together," Neuer said.