After a Jewish-owned bagel shop in downtown Miami was vandalized over the weekend, the mayor and a federal judge showed their support Monday by helping clean it up.
Images showed "Free Palestine" and "Stop Genocide" spray painted on the front of Holy Bagels on Northwest 1st Street. A security camera from inside the shop captured a person spraying the windows and doors, and then ripping down the "Stand with Israel" banner that was displayed up front.
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"This is devastating," owner Josh Nodel said.
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Last fall, vandals did the same thing twice to his other bagel shop in Miami Beach.
"We've been targeted because of hate, because they know we are Jewish, we are supporters of Israel," Nodel said.
He said the vandalism doesn't help the Palestinian people.
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"Not as far as I think, I think it’s just hurting them," Nodel said.
The owner was heartened when some high-profile help showed up Monday to clean up the mess: Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Federal Judge Roy Altman.
"My grandparents went through the 1940s in Europe, and this is how it started, spray painting Jewish businesses, we will not allow antisemites to silence us here, to convince us that the West is broken or bad," Altman said, explaining why he came out to help.
"I think this is meant to scare people, to try to give the impression that we don’t control our city, that our city can be overrun by acts of illegality and hate and that’s not acceptable to us," Suarez said.
As Suarez and Altman helped scrub the red paint from the storefront, security company owner Auggie Mejia offered to provide free patrols.
"What they did here was a cowardly act," Mejia said. "We don’t like cowards in my business, we don’t like those kinda guys, those kind of people, so we’re just here to help out."
