Residents on edge after antisemitic graffiti spray-painted at Beverly Hills apartment complex

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (KABC) -- Residents of a Beverly Hills apartment complex were on edge after antisemitic graffiti was found spray-painted outside the building.

The vandalism was discovered Wednesday outside the Bedford Manor apartments on Bedford Drive, just south of Olympic Boulevard.

"It's just terribly emotional and it's frightening," Klara Firestone, the manager of the building, said in an interview with ABC7. "It's frightening to know that it's happening in my own home - literally in my own home."

As many of 60% of the Bedford Manor tenants are Jewish, Firestone said, including her 99-year-old mother, Renee Firestone, a Holocaust survivor.

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The suspect, who hasn't been identified and remains in custody, broke into the home wearing only his boxers and began yelling hateful comments about Israel and Jews.

Klara Firestone shared with ABC7 a black-and-white family photo. She said nearly all of the three-dozen people in the image were killed in the Holocaust.

Klara and her parents escaped to the U.S. to start a new life.

"That's really what stings - that the world has not learned the lessons and has not changed one iota," she said. "There are still those that would relish my demise and dance on my grave."

Workers painted over the graffiti at the apartment complex after it was discovered.

The Beverly Hills Police Department are investigating the incident. The agency said it has received three reports of antisemitic incidents this week. Whether the incidents were connected was unclear.

"I think that this global conflict now, in the Middle East, certainly has polarized everybody," Klara Firestone said. "It's a human issue. It's a civil society issue."

Jewish and Muslim civil rights groups say they've seen large increases in reports of harassment, bias and sometimes physical assaults against members of their communities since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

The Anti-Defamation League and the Council on American-Islamic Relations saw increases in reported instances, many involving violence or threats against protesters at rallies in support of Israel or in support of Palestinians over the last two weeks as war broke out between Israel and Hamas. Other attacks and harassment reported by the groups were directed at random Muslim or Jewish people in public.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.