‘Just evil’: Investigation underway after hundreds of Israeli hostage posters vandalized in Newton

NEWTON, Mass — Shortly after October 7, Jeff Kosowsky put up more than 100 signs in his front yard in Newton, showing the pictures of some of the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas.

“Every day people would walk by and stop, knock on our door and people would meet us in the street and say how much it meant to them,” said Kosowsky.

He says for the last five months, he received only positive feedback about the pictures of mostly women and children.

But Sunday that all changed when he woke up to extensive damage: every single poster was vandalized with either spray paint or completely torn down.

“To know there are humans in this world or people who claim to be human who use this as an opportunity to degrade and wipe out the memories of these children, it’s just beyond the pale,” said Kosowksy.

“Somebody had to look at the face of Kfir Bibas, who was one years old, and paint over his face like who does that? It’s just evil,” said Miriam Kosowsky.

The Kosowsky’s are now concerned about the increase of antisemitic incidents nearby.

“We’re hearing from people who are in the schools that there are swastikas in bathrooms and they’re not feeling safe in schools, and now it’s actually happening to our private property, so it’s really a feeling of people getting really scared,” said Miriam Kosowsky.

Not only were these signs destroyed, but the criminals also spray painted their home address sign.

“This is an act of vandalism, this is a hate crime,” said David Micley, a Newton city councilor.

Micley says just last week someone broke the window of another home that had a sign showing support for Israel, and he says these attacks need to be called out and stopped.

“This is not about politics, this is not about having a debate about how things should play out in this conflict, this is about how we should be with each other as neighbors,” said Micley. “And as neighbors we cannot accept this.”

Newton police is investigating the vandalism.

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