The homes of several Jewish leaders and board members of the Brooklyn Museum were vandalized early Wednesday morning in a coordinated attack, according to a museum spokeswoman.
Vandals attacked the Brooklyn Heights home of Anne Pasternak, director of the museum, by smearing red paint and graffiti across the entry of her apartment building and hanging a banner that accused her of being a “white-supremacist Zionist.”
The homes of two trustees and the museum’s president and chief operating officer, Kimberly Panicek Trueblood, all of whom are Jewish, were also targeted, according to Taylor Maatman, the museum’s director of public relations and communications.
The Brooklyn Museum has had a fraught relationship with some community organizers, who have staged protests throughout Ms. Pasternak’s tenure. Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the institution’s grounds have become a gathering spot for pro-Palestinian activists who claim there is a link between wealthy trustees and the military-industrial complex in Israel — an accusation that museum officials have denied.
Last week, police arrested dozens of activists outside the museum, including a leader of the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, after a protest in which some activists invaded the museum. In a statement, the organization said it condemned the Brooklyn Museum and would “hold its leadership fully accountable for the violence carried out against the protesters inside and outside the museum, the majority of whom were Black and brown youth and young women.”
In a phone interview on Wednesday morning, Ms. Pasternak said she was “disgusted and shaken” about the vandalism of her home.
“For two centuries, the Brooklyn Museum has worked to foster mutual understanding through art and culture, and we have always supported peaceful protest and open, respectful dialogue,” she said in a later statement. “Violence, vandalism, and intimidation have no place in that discourse.”
A Police Department spokeswoman said that investigators were aware of the vandalism and were gathering information.
Mayor Eric Adams said in a social media post that the Police Department “will bring the criminals responsible here to justice.”
“This is not peaceful protest or free speech,” Mr. Adams said. “This is a crime, and it’s overt, unacceptable antisemitism.”
The attacks on Wednesday did not happen in a vacuum.
On Monday night, hundreds of people protested against Israel outside an exhibit in Lower Manhattan that commemorates the at least 360 people who were killed during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 at a rave in southern Israel.
Last month, a man was charged with assault after he argued with pro-Palestinian demonstrators who were protesting at the Upper East Side home of a Columbia University trustee and then hit one with his car.
The number of hate crimes logged in the city during October, when the Israel-Hamas war began, was more than double that of the previous October.
So far this year, hate crimes — particularly against Jewish and Muslim people — are elevated, compared with the same period last year. Through the beginning of June, there were 173 antisemitic incidents reported to the police, compared with 101 during the same time last year. Reports of hate crimes against Muslims rose from five to 16 over the same period.
Robert C. Carroll, a State Assembly member whose district includes the Brooklyn Museum, described Wednesday’s attacks as “repugnant.”
“To target the director and board of a fine arts museum who happen to be Jewish and call them white supremacists and Zionists — this is not civil debate.”
The Association of Art Museum Directors also released a statement “unequivocally and forcefully” condemning the acts.
Maria Cramer contributed reporting.
