{"id":2341,"date":"2025-01-13T12:30:59","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T12:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/betarorg.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=2341"},"modified":"2026-01-09T05:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T05:00:15","slug":"heroes-or-hooligans-milwaukee-rabbi-and-son-arrested-for-vandalizing-swastika-mural","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/betar.org\/en\/heroes-or-hooligans-milwaukee-rabbi-and-son-arrested-for-vandalizing-swastika-mural\/","title":{"rendered":"Heroes or hooligans? Milwaukee rabbi and son arrested for vandalizing swastika mural"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Peter and Zechariah Mehler, Jewish Milwaukee residents, freely admit to having torn down an anti-Israel mural depicting a Star of David turning into a swastika. (Courtesy)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

JTA \u2014 Zechariah Mehler wanted to see the swastika for himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was September, and Milwaukee was abuzz over a mural that had gone up on the side of a commercial building in the city\u2019s sixth district. Painted on slabs of vinyl affixed to the brick, the mural \u2014 a large rectangle about the size of the building\u2019s ground floor \u2014 featured a background that appeared to depict mass graves, weeping mothers, drones and other scenes of carnage in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the center: a Jewish star with a swastika inside it, along with the words, \u201cThe irony of becoming what you once hated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city council had passed a resolution condemning the mural, and local Jewish leaders had called to remove it. But the building\u2019s owner, a Palestinian real estate businessman named Ihsan Atta, said he was making a principled stand against Israel\u2019s war in Gaza. When a local mother splashed black paint on the mural and confronted him on camera<\/a>, yelling, \u201cWhat are you promoting for our kids to see?\u201d Atta yelled back and had it repainted by the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any doubts that Mehler had about whether the mural was antisemitic were erased when he visited the site and, he said, saw anti-Zionist protesters harassing Orthodox Jewish teenagers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou had the Free Palestine group just screaming at these kids, you know, \u2018baby murderers and Zionist pigs,\u2019\u201d he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. \u201cIt was aggressive, it was intimidating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Mehler \u2014 a 42-year-old dreadlocked former tech worker known as \u201cZee\u201d who used to work as a kosher caterer and run a blog about kosher food \u2014 said he decided to take matters into his own hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the night of September 14, he recruited his 74-year-old father Peter, a retired rabbi who is in poor health, to accompany him to the site of the mural. They brought an ax, a sledgehammer and a pry bar and went to work. Moving quickly, the two struck the mural and pulled the vinyl plates off the wall, in full view of Atta\u2019s security cameras. Zechariah turned to one and flipped it off: \u201cDouble middle fingers,\u201d the police report would later read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pair were derailed \u2014 and the incident nearly veered into violence \u2014 when a bystander who supported the mural tried to intervene. So Zechariah Mehler returned the following day to finish the job, prying the remaining panels from the wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two weeks later, shortly before Rosh Hashanah, police came to his home. He and his father were arrested and charged with criminal damage to property, which in Wisconsin carries up to nine months of jail time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mehler says he knows that what he and his father did was illegal he expected to get caught. But he\u2019s convinced they did the morally correct thing, the only option that didn\u2019t require them to ignore or shrink from a threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A controversial anti-Israel mural in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, depicting a Jewish star turning into a swastika, was put up by a Palestinian business owner on September 14, 2024. (Screenshot via WISN Milwaukee)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is certainly destruction of private property,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cThe question becomes whether or not [the mural] posed a tangible threat to the Jewish community. That\u2019s our argument.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Mehler says that he, too, has no regrets. He lives with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder in which the body\u2019s immune system attacks its own nerves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe last 10 years, I\u2019ve been a shut-in, basically,\u201d he said. \u201cBut this was an opportunity for me to have a last chance to be active about this message. We cannot allow Jews to be converted into Nazis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, the Mehlers are hoping to make their case in court. A preliminary hearing is set for Tuesday, though it\u2019s unclear how the case will progress. At a previous court appearance, Zechariah Mehler called Atta profane names and, he said, tried to take a selfie with the mural\u2019s owner to post on social media. Since then, a new district attorney has been sworn in to prosecute cases in Milwaukee, and he hasn\u2019t yet commented publicly on this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case has become a major flashpoint in Milwaukee, where Golda Meir grew up and first became active in the Labor Zionist movement, and where some vocal anti-Israel activists have brought a level of hostility to local affairs never before seen by the city\u2019s Jewish community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the summer, the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, whose main campus library is named after Meir, enraged some local Jewish groups by making a deal with his campus\u2019 anti-Israel encampment; he wound up apologizing.<\/a> A progressive Jewish member of Milwaukee\u2019s city council, who\u2019d co-signed a joint resolution condemning the mural, recently died by suicide, an act some of his friends say was motivated <\/a>by anti-Zionist bullying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mehlers\u2019 case is also capturing attention beyond the city, where the question of how to respond to anti-Israel displays has flummoxed and sometimes divided Jews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Zeev Jabotinsky (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leader of a group called Betar US, which advocates for Jews to be more forceful, even physical, in confronting the threats they see, invited the father and son to represent the organization in Milwaukee. The group also helped raise nearly $20,000 toward their legal fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Betar US is a reboot of a century-old paramilitary group originally founded by early 20th-century Revisionist Zionist leader Ze\u2019ev Jabotinsky. Betar members have been involved in several altercations with anti-Israel demonstrators over the last year, and it has even gone after other Jews<\/a> at times. The group is also collecting information<\/a> about international students who participate in US anti-Israel protests to get the students deported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy politics and Betar\u2019s politics are very different. I\u2019m not a right-wing guy,\u201d Zechariah Mehler said. But he said the group\u2019s president, the Jewish public relations executive Ronn Torossian, assured him, \u201cThis is more about, do you believe that Israel has a right to exist, that Jews have a right to live in peace?\u201d Of utmost importance, he said, was that Jews should stop \u201cjust being meek and allowing ourselves to be threatened and walked over. So I said, sure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Torossian has called the Mehlers \u201cheroes.\u201d He said in an interview that their actions perfectly fit the nonprofit\u2019s vision of seeing Jews publicly fighting back against perceived threats to themselves or Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Mehler family is a big reason why we restarted Betar,\u201d said Torossian, who said he grew up in earlier iterations of the movement. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame that this man has to stand up and act alone. It\u2019s a shame that this man is facing a criminal trial and the entire Jewish community is silent. That won\u2019t continue. I can assure you, we\u2019re going to get him more support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It does not appear that any of the support will come from local Jewish institutions and organizations, whom Zechariah Mehler derided as \u201cdeer in headlights\u201d when it comes to the problems presented by anti-Israel activism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A representative for the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Relations Council reiterated the federation\u2019s denunciation of the mural as \u201cantisemitic for many reasons,\u201d including that it promotes Holocaust denial and dehumanizes survivors and victims of the Holocaust. But the groups declined to comment further on the Mehlers\u2019 case or the mural\u2019s actual removal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The groups have in the past discouraged Jewish vigilantism: In May, amid intense activity at the UWM encampment, the JCRC advised <\/a>local Jews not to counter-protest, saying that it could escalate a risky situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anti-Israel protesters make signs in an encampment area on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, April 30, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo\/Morry Gash)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Mehlers sought to purchase an advertisement in the local Jewish newspaper, which is owned by the federation, they were rebuffed. \u201cYou come with an ongoing backstory that could present content and\/or reputation challenges for a Jewish publication,\u201d a federation executive wrote to Zechariah Mehler, in an email that JTA obtained. The official added that the federation \u201ccan\u2019t put ourselves in a position where folks can even get the sense that we endorsed any actions of your past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some in the city are sympathetic to the Mehlers. Matt Stolzenberg, a tattoo artist whose parlor was located in the same building as the mural, has been outspoken about his distaste for it. Following its installation, Stolzenberg \u2014 who says he is not Jewish but has Jewish family \u2014 said he and his business partners moved his shop\u2019s location at considerable expense, \u201cspecifically to avoid vandalism and other issues that a giant swastika will bring to a business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of his customers interpreted his move as \u201can anti-Palestine thing, which I\u2019m not at all,\u201d Stolzenberg said. \u201cBut I\u2019m also just not anti-Jew, nor pro-swastika.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked about his views on the Mehlers\u2019 case, he added, \u201cI think that if I were Jewish, there would be no other option than to tear down the giant swastika mural.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atta installed the mural in place of a previous one erected in memory of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman shot by police in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2020 who became a symbol of nationwide racial justice protests that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the first vandalism of the mural, by a local woman, Milwaukee\u2019s city council issued a statement condemning the image as \u201churtful and divisive\u201d and saying that it \u201cis not welcome in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome people look for any excuse to wave a swastika,\u201d the council members wrote in their September 14 statement. \u201cIt has long been a symbol of intolerance and hatred, designed to psychologically injure and oppress those who are different.\u201d The council member who represents the district where the mural was located did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atta also did not respond to requests for comment made through an intermediary. But he has consistently defended his mural, including at a press conference <\/a>he held at the site shortly after the Mehlers tore it down. The conference was called by the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine, whose co-chair is Atta\u2019s sister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Palestinian business owner Ihsan Atta condemns the destruction of his mural in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, depicting a Star of David turning into a swastika, September 16, 2024. Behind Atta, supporters wear T-shirts with the mural\u2019s image. (MKEMWC\/Screenshot via YouTube)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was an artistic way of expressing the current genocide that is being perpetrated against the Palestinian people by Israel and which is being supported by our government and funded with our tax dollars,\u201d Atta said of the mural at the event. He said the Star of David on the mural was not a Jewish symbol but instead pulled from the flag \u201cof an apartheid regime\u201d as a political symbol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adopting language popularized in large part by Meir Kahane, the far-right Jewish extremist, as a response to the Holocaust, he added, \u201cIt is a statement to say that \u2018never again\u2019 means never again for anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several of his supporters wore black T-shirts emblazoned with the mural\u2019s swastika design at the event, which was also attended by local members of the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet even JVP, which tends to back Palestinian-led protests that many other Jews find offensive and even antisemitic, acknowledged the mural\u2019s provocations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe understand why it\u2019s polarizing,\u201d the Milwaukee chapter, which is a member of the pro-Palestinian coalition, wrote <\/a>in a lengthy Instagram statement posted just prior to the mural\u2019s destruction. \u201cThere is a legitimate critique that can be made about it, particularly concerning the language of the mural implying that Jews, whom the Nazis persecuted and exterminated during the Holocaust, have become oppressors not unlike the Nazis in regards to Zionism and Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement, which the chapter\u2019s co-founder, Rachel Ida Buff, read at the press conference, added, \u201cIt should be made abundantly clear that Judaism and Zionism are two different things, but it understandable how someone might read the mural as conflating the two.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the statement went on to conclude that Israel\u2019s behavior was \u201cfar more reprehensible and antisemitic\u201d than the mural, and that \u201cit is not our or anyone else\u2019s place to police Palestinians as they express their pain through creative means.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local JVP chapter co-founder Rachel Ida Buff, a history professor at UWM who is Jewish, told JTA she believed the mural \u201cwas meant to generate conversation, which it succeeded in doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buff added, \u201cIf seeing the image of a swastika in River West upsets people more than the images of murdered children coming out of Gaza, that is a moral problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Illustrative: Members of the South Florida branch of anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace and other protesters call for a ceasefire in Gaza, outside the Miami office of Sen. Rick Scott, October 17, 2023, in Coral Gables, Florida. (AP Photo\/Rebecca Blackwell)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What upset Peter Mehler most when he saw the mural, he said, was thinking about his former congregants, many of them Holocaust survivors, at the synagogues he led in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and Northbrook, Illinois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was really outraged,\u201d he said. \u201cFor them, this would have been extremely traumatic. And it was traumatic for me, too, to watch this guy take the Star of David and make it into a swastika.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He rejected any comparisons between the Gaza war and the Holocaust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe war in Israel is nothing like the Holocaust, and I am offended by the idea that the Palestinians have turned this into us as offenders when they, in fact, were the attackers,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know, once they attacked, then they have to realize that they opened up Pandora\u2019s box, and anything that Israel did, they were responsible for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both men said their activism had almost taken a dangerous turn when the bystander accosted them while they were ripping down the mural. The man \u201csaid to me, \u2018You don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about. You don\u2019t know what genocide is. Describe genocide to me,\u2019\u201d Peter Mehler recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exchange triggered him, and he said he considered hitting the man with his hammer. But Zechariah said he \u201cexplained to my father that our methodology was not one that was intended to be aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bystander, Michael Gauthier, shared a similar account of the encounter during the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine press conference. \u201cI stood here on this curb and there was an angry man screaming in my face, waving a hammer, saying he was going to hit me with it,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThank God that didn\u2019t happen. Thank God his partner in crime talked him down a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Family members tried to discourage Peter from joining his son in the first place, citing his health, both Mehlers said. But he insisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the responsibility of a rabbi to be the symbol of true north for the Jewish community,\u201d Peter Mehler said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a symbol of antisemitism hung on a wall, and not anybody will speak out about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both father and son say they\u2019re prepared to go to jail over their actions. Peter insisted things wouldn\u2019t come to that and vowed to appeal any penalty. Zechariah, meanwhile, said he would relish the attention such a sentence would bring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know what\u2019ll happen if they put me in jail for this? Oh my God, then every Jewish organization would be on it,\u201d he said. \u201cAlan Dershowitz would be here. They don\u2019t want that.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In September, a Palestinian businessman plastered his building with an image of the Nazi symbol in a Star of David; the pair who removed it say they don\u2019t doubt it was antisemitic<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHeroes or hooligans? 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