Hatred has 'no place' here, says St. Louis archbishop after antisemitic attack

(OSV News) -- "Antisemitism and hatred have no place in our community," said Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of St. Louis, following an attack in front of an Israel Defense Forces soldier's home in Clayton, Missouri.

According to a statement from the Clayton County Police Department, three vehicles were set ablaze on a residential street Aug. 5, with antisemitic graffiti painted on the street.

While the police department did not provide additional details about the graffiti, drone images from KMOV 4 News in St. Louis showed the words "DEATH TO THE IDF" sprayed in white on the road, referencing the Israel Defense Forces.

No injuries were reported, said the police, which said the incident "is currently being investigated as a hate crime."

"We believe the victim in this incident, a Clayton resident, was specifically targeted," said the police statement.

"As people of faith, we must not allow fear, intolerance and distrust of others to dictate how we reach out to our neighbors and welcome the stranger among us," said Archbishop Rozanski -- who in July was appointed by Pope Leo XIV to the Vatican's Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue -- in statement provided to OSV News Aug. 7.

"We, as Catholics, condemn antisemitism, Islamophobia, and bigotry in all its forms," he said, "and we stand alongside all communities of faith in our pursuit of dialogue, understanding and peace."

In an Aug. 5 X post, Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights, and the head of the Trump administration's task force on antisemitism, said the attackers had targeted "an American citizen who served in the IDF," which is currently engaged in the Israel-Hamas war, sparked by the Palestinian militant organization's Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. Terrell said the FBI's team in St. Louis was investigating.

To date, more than 60,000 Palestinians have died in the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. Some 1,200 Israelis have been killed and more than 5,400 injured. Of the 251 Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, 50 remain in captivity, with only 20 of them believed to still be alive, with 83 of the hostages confirmed killed to date. More than 100 were released later in 2023; eight were rescued by Israeli forces. A large-scale, globally condemned humanitarian crisis has unfolded in Gaza, where civilians deaths by starvation have been reported, as a result of the conflict.

Numerous Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, also condemned the attack.

In a joint statement Aug. 5, several St. Louis-based Jewish groups said, "This is more than vandalism; it is a hateful act of intimidation and only the latest example of what happens when antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric are normalized."

The statement also noted the FBI's 2024 Hate Crime Report, released Aug. 5 as part of the agency's annual review of the nation's crime statistics. The FBI found that in 2024 anti-Jewish crimes accounted for 69% of all criminal incidents targeting a religious group.