Michael "Shlomo" Jacobs, 53, hung a small sign outside the front  window of his business in Squirrel Hill, Marvista Design + Build, a week ago that said, "We Stand With Israel."

He said he never expected it to make his business “a target of antisemitism.”

About 3:50 a.m. Friday, a woman was captured by surveillance cameras outside the business at 2435 Beechwood Blvd. using a hammer to repeatedly strike the window where the sign hung. Unsuccessful in breaking the glass, she left. A few minutes later, however, she was back.

She struck the window a few more times and took the sign. Before leaving, she smashed the windows of the company truck, which was parked nearby.

Pittsburgh police were investigating.

"There was a lot of hate in those swings," said Mr. Jacobs, who found out about the incident the following day after noticing a literature rack outside the building was missing and saw the cracks in the window.

After reviewing the camera footage, Mr. Jacobs called it "a miracle" that the glass didn't break.

"I can't figure out why," he said. "It's unbelievable."

He later learned that neighbors woke to the sounds of the hammer smashing against the window and called police, thinking they were hearing gunshots. Footage shows two police cars arriving at 4:01 a.m., but the woman was long gone. Mr. Jacobs said that when he filed a police report later Friday, the responding officer said he had not heard about the incident from the overnight shift.

As a resident of the neighborhood that contains the largest Jewish population in Pittsburgh, Mr. Jacobs said the community already felt unsafe as "a wave of antisemitism”  had arisen since the start of the Israel-Hamas war Oct. 7. Now, he said, that feeling has only worsened.

Hateful graffiti was spray-painted on public spaces and homes across Squirrel Hill's Summerset Neighborhood on Oct. 31, four days after the five-year commemoration of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

Rabbi Yisroel Rosenfeld, 71, of the Lubavitch Center in Squirrel Hill, called the vandalism incident at Marvista Design + Build "very unfortunate," and said that since the synagogue massacre, the community has come together peacefully and positively.

"Hopefully it's somebody coming from outside the community, trying to do something like this to upset the beauty and the coexistence that exists in our community with everybody," said Rabbi Rosenfeld.

The Squirrel Hill resident said he was informed of the incident "first thing Friday morning" from many concerned residents. He said he told them their response should be to "continue to do positive things and bring more light into the world."

"Hopefully, that will affect everyone around us," Rabbi Rosenfeld said.

Mr. Jacobs is not backing down. He has put up two more signs that say, "We Stand With Israel," inside the front window of his business.

"We are Jewish. We have a business in Squirrel Hill," said Mr. Jacobs.

"We serve the Greater Pittsburgh community — and I'm not going to hide."

First Published: November 12, 2023, 10:30 a.m.
Updated: November 13, 2023, 12:02 a.m.