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Before the final weekend of a Jewish holiday season that has been marked by a string of bias crimes in Edison and Highland Park, multiple swastikas and an anti-Semitic slur were found on playground equipment at Paterniti Park in Edison.

At about 5:10 p.m. Oct. 9, an hour before Shabbat and Shemini Atzeret, the Edison Police Department learned of swastikas on a plastic canopy that servers as an overhang for a slide at the park on Vineyard Road, Lt. Joseph Shannon said. The anti-Semitic comment read "[expletive] Jews," he said.

The anti-Semitic graffiti was scrawled in black permanent marker and police immediately painted over it, Shannon said. There are no suspects yet and detectives are canvassing the area, he said, explaining that it is very difficult to apprehend individuals for crimes in locations that are "off the beaten path," especially since Edison has 17 parks. Police have increased their patrols in parks in response to the graffiti, he said.

Starting with the beating of a Jewish man near Edison's Rabbi Jacob Joseph Yeshiva on the second night of Rosh Hashanah, the Edison/Highland Park community has seen at least four bias crimes during the fall holiday period.

"The one thing that we've learned during the Jewish holiday season is to have as high of a visible presence as possible in the synagogue and school areas," Shannon said.

Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg, leader of Congregation Beth-El in Edison, said that one of his congregants informed him before Shabbat that her son discovered the swastikas at Paterniti Park. The woman then called the police, Rosenberg said.

"He was horrified," Rosenberg said of his congregant's son. "He was in hysterics."

Rosenberg, a longtime police chaplain in Edison, echoed Shannon's sentiment about the difficulty of catching perpetrators in incidences of vandalism. After Yom Kippur on Sept. 28, a still unknown suspect or group of suspects spray-painted three large swastikas at the front of Beth-El.

"Unless you happen to come upon them while they are doing it, how are you going to track them down?" Rosenberg asked, adding that not even surveillance cameras can fully identify suspects.

On the night of Yom Kippur Sept. 27, Highland Park police arrested a 17-year-old Somerset County boy who leaned out of a car on Raritan Avenue and Fourth Avenue, shouted "Hail Hitler," and gave a Nazi salute to three Jewish residents who were walking home from synagogue.

Just eight days earlier, a 19-year-old Jewish man suffered an eye laceration after he was punched in the head by a 16-year-old Edison boy while walking on Woodbridge Avenue near RJJ during the second night of Rosh Hashanah. The boy is facing juvenile charges of aggravated assault and bias intimidation.

"These actions are intolerable," Edison Mayor Jun Choi said in a statement. "They will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Edison has always prided itself in our respect for cultures and faiths of all backgrounds."

On Oct. 8, one day before swastikas were found at Paterniti Park, the Anti-Defamation League compiled a security bulletin warning that Muslim Brotherhood ideologue Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi had called for a "Day of Rage" on Oct. 9, explaining that the call to action "comes during a year in which there has been a significant uptick in the number of plots, conspiracies, and attacks against Jews (and others) that have been motivated by hate ideology."

The ADL bulletin also noted a poem posted online by Revolution Muslim, a New York-based Muslim extremist organization, asking God to "kill the Jews" and listing ways that Jews could be hurt, including burning "their flammable sukkos while they sleep."

In light of recent events, the bulletin urged American Jewish institutions and individuals to keep their eyes and ears open for suspicious behavior, ensure that their staff members and family members know what to do in emergency situations, review and practice safety procedures, and establish or renew relationships with local law enforcement.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County distributed the bulletin via email to its constituents, also suggesting a review of the ADL's security manual called "Protecting Your Jewish Institutions." In Highland Park, Congregation Ohav Emeth forwarded its congregants a message from the Edison Police Department, which summarized the recent bias crimes and assured that "law enforcement throughout the County, in close coordination and with the support of the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office, has, and will maintain a zero-tolerance policy regarding any and all bias related offenses."

Rosenberg said the community's distribution of security-related information before Shemini Atzeret means that "the community has woken up."

However, Rosenberg said he remains concerned that part of the community believes recent bias incidents are "just simple acts by teenagers who are ignorant." Jewish institutions need to keep increasing their outreach to members and make clear that anti-Semitism isn't a joking matter, Rosenberg said.