An unknown person vandalized the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in Portland last Tuesday, painting several swastikas outside the building.
Staff arrived at the museum to find blue swastikas painted on the front door and on a photo mural. Photos of the swastikas and security camera footage have been forwarded to the Portland Police Bureau, according to museum Executive Director Rebekah Sobel.
The outside of the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in Portland, Ore. on Aug. 3, 2025.
Joni Land / OPB
Museum employees were able to quickly document and remove the graffiti from the building. Sobel said the vandalism came as a surprise.
“Anger, frustration, sadness,” Sobel said. “This hasn’t happened at this location for the museum ever before.”
The Portland Police Bureau is investigating the incident as a possible hate crime, according to The Oregonian/Oregon Live.
The museum has operated in multiple locations around downtown, and has been at its current location on Northwest Davis Street since 2017. In addition to its museum, it also oversees the Oregon Holocaust Memorial in Washington Park.
It’s not the first time a Jewish institution in Portland has been tagged with antisemitic graffiti. In 2022, someone lit a small fire outside Congregation Beth Israel and similarly defaced the nearly 100-year-old synagogue with graffiti.
And last month, police announced they were looking for a man who vandalized a Jewish business in Northeast Portland.
“I feel that if you’re going to work for a Jewish organization in a downtown area like this, this just might happen,” Sobel said. “So we have a lot of conversations about safety and safety protocols, and we have a person who does our security in person when people enter the building.”
She also encouraged more people to visit the museum and downtown Portland in general — she hopes increased foot traffic can deter any future vandalism.
