A swastika and a disturbing message attacking Jewish people were spray painted on the sidewalk at East Mark Great Park in Mesa, Arizona

“These types of hate acts have huge repercussions for how the community feels here,” said Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz. “What we know is that these types of hate messages ultimately lead toward violence. So we have to name them and counter them right away.”

“We can become numb to some of these lies and stereotypes in ways that normalize them,” said Dr. Edna Friedberg.

Dr. Friedberg is a historian with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. She is coming to Scottsdale on Thursday for an event to educate families on extremism in our country and ways to fight it. Dr. Friedberg said learning from history and speaking out against hate is vital. “It is about how we can protect ourselves, how can we become alert, not passively become complicit in letting some of these ideas become mainstream,” she said. “If we don’t stand up for our neighbor, we are all allowing the fabric of our communities to be weakened.”