By Leyna Krow, Assistant Editor, JTNews
View Ridge neighborhood residents discovered anti-Semitic graffiti on a Yiddish-themed mural at the bus shelter at the corner of NE 65th St. and 39th Ave. NE on the morning of Friday, May 2.
The mural, which depicts a scene and words from a Yiddish children’s song, was painted by artist Joan Rudd as part of King County Metro’s Bus Shelter Mural Program.
Rudd said that she was alerted to the graffiti by several community members who live nearby. The graffiti was confined to the inside of the shelter and included several swastikas and other drawings done with a black marker. Rather than alert Metro’s graffiti team, Rudd chose simply to remove the ink herself.
“[The graffiti] came right off with a rag dipped in lacquer thinner,” Rudd wrote in an e-mail. “I would guess it was the work of a rather young person(s), as they were comic book or even coloring book ‘style’ drawings, including a couple of pornographic ones around the word ‘gay.’”
Rudd noted that the appearance of the graffiti on the morning of Yom HaShoah was particularly upsetting to the community members she spoke with. However, she feels that the timing was most likely coincidental.
According to Linda Thielke, spokesperson for Metro, this is the third time the bus shelter at the corner of NE 65th St. and 39th Ave. NE has been vandalized since the beginning of April, although none of the other incidents involved anti-Semitic drawings.
Thielke said that Metro’s graffiti team does their best to respond to all reports of vandalism within 48 hours, and sooner if the graffiti is obscene, or involves racial epitaphs or other derogatory comments or images.
In 2007, the graffiti team received more than 9,000 reports of graffiti at King County bus stops. Approximately 250 of those incidents were documented as exhibiting offensive content.