Los-Angeles – A mural on the south side of the Arbeter
Ring/Workmen’s Circle Southern California campus at 1525 S. Robertson Blvd was
defaced with graffiti that reads “Free Palestine!!!!”
It was not immediately
clear when the graffiti was spray-painted onto the building, as phones at the
center were not answered on Thursday morning, Jan. 6, the day the Journal
learned about the vandalism.
The wall-sized mural
itslef – titled, ”A shenere un besere velt,” according to the Mural Conservancy
of Los Angeles (a Yiddish phrase meaning, “A more beautiful and better world) –
depicts cultural, biblical and historical imagery. The imagery includes a menorah,
Israelites wandering in the desert, a young girl waving Israeli and American
flags, and more.
Artist Elisio Art Silva
completed the mural in 1998, according to the conservancy organization.
Photos obtained by the
Journal on Thursday morning by a Pico-Robertson resident who was driving by and
spotted the defaced building show the graffiti spaning nearly the entire length
of the building, which, according to the conservancy group, measures
60-feet-long and 15-feet-high.
Robert Adler-Peckerar,
executive director of the L.A.-based organization Yiddishkayt, which is a
frequent collaborator with the national office and local branch of Workmen’s
Circle, said the message of the graffiti reflects an ignorance about the
mission of the victimized group. He described Workmen’s Circle as being
historically committed to ideas of “social progress, equality, human rights,
civil rights and the general pursuit of human dignity,” which includes
promoting a “progressive, peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,”
he said.
“I feel like this [the
graffiti] indicates something much more about thoughtlessness than about an
actual commitment to a free Palestine,” Adler-Peckerar said in an interview.
“And a tremendous amount of cultural illiteracy [on the vandal(s)’ part].”
Workmen’s Circle, an
educational organization that celebrates Yiddish culture, emphasizes the Jewish
connection to social justice and more, has evolved over the years since its
founding in 1900 by what it describes on its website as a group of “progressive-minded
Jews.”
During its early years,
the organization fought on behalf of Eastern-European Jewish immigrants in the
United States–whose primary language was often Yiddish-on matters related to
labor practices, health insurance, burial costs and more.
As the needs of the
American-Jewish community changed, so too did workmen’s circle. Today, the
organization, which maintains a national office in New York and operates in at
least six other cities, including Los Angeles, runs schools, a camp, adult
education classes, a learning center and more.
The venue of the Los
Angeles branch, the target of the graffiti, offers programs on “Secular
Jewishness;” “Yiddish Language;” “Art and Music;” and “Social Justice.”
