Anti-Semitic graffiti, swastikas spray-painted on Jewish cemetery gravestones in Illinois

Vandals defaced gravestones with swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti, including “Kanye was rite,” at a Jewish cemetery in a north Chicago suburb.

The offensive spray-paint was discovered Monday morning at Am Echod Jewish Cemetery in Waukegan, local Fox affiliate WFLD reported.

Police in the suburb, about 35 miles north of downtown Chicago, are still looking for suspects.

The anti-Semites spray-painted swastikas on 16 headstones and defaced 23 more with red graffiti, according to WFLD. Not all the other graffiti was legible, but one video clearly showed “Kanye was rite” written on one headstone.

“In the immediate aftermath of the continued escalation of antisemitic incidents, this one hits hard,” David Goldenberg, Midwest regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, told Chicago ABC affiliate WLS.

“What it really represents is this normalization of antisemitism, and that is what we find to be incredibly concerning,” Goldenberg said.

The Anti-Defamation League recorded a more than 400% increase in anti-Semitic crimes in Illinois between 2016 and 2021.

The cemetery vandals weren’t the first to reference Kanye West’s anti-Semitism.

A hate group bought a “Kanye is right about the Jews” billboard above a Los Angeles freeway in late October. The same message was projected outside a Florida-Georgia football game one week later.