Three New Yorkers Charged With Hate Crimes for Antisemitic Vandalism of Homes of Brooklyn Museum Officials

A woman and two men in New York have been indicted on hate crimes charges for allegedly vandalizing the homes of officials from the Brooklyn Museum, including its Jewish executive director, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced on Monday. 

Taylor Pelton, 28, of Astoria, Queens; Samuel Seligson, 32, of Brooklyn; and Gabriel Schubiner, 36, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, were charged in a 25-count indictment in connection with the antisemitic incidents that took place in June in Brooklyn and Manhattan. The indictment includes charges such as making a terroristic threat as a hate crime, making a terroristic threat, third- and fourth-degree criminal mischief as a hate crime, third- and fourth-degree criminal mischief, making graffiti, possession of graffiti instruments, and fifth-degree conspiracy. Schubiner was arraigned on Monday and released without bail, and Seligson and Pelton are expected to be arraigned next week.

The defendants allegedly targeted executives of the Brooklyn art museum who had Jewish-sounding names, but only one of their victims was in fact Jewish — Executive Director Anne Pasternak. Gonzalez did not reveal the names of the victims, but it was previously reported that they included the museum’s President and Chief Operating Officer Kimberly Panicek-Trueblood, Board Treasurer Neil Simpkins, and Chairman of the Board of Directors Barbara Vogelstein. Panicek-Trueblood’s husband is Jewish.

“Acts of vandalism that target individuals in their own homes are a deeply disturbing violation meant to intimidate, terrorize, and instill fear,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “These defendants allegedly targeted museum board members with threats and antisemitic graffiti based on their perceived heritage. These actions are not protests; they are hate crimes, and we are deeply committed to holding accountable anyone who uses such unlawful tactics in Brooklyn.”

The three defendants allegedly committed their acts of vandalism during the early morning hours of June 12.

According to prosecutors, Pelton drove the defendants, and three unapprehended others, to the neighborhood of Boerum Hill in Brooklyn and from there, they were caught on surveillance video walking with black bags to Douglass Street, where a member of Brooklyn Museum’s board of directors lives. Schubiner allegedly painted over a video camera at the location, in an attempt to conceal the group’s identity, and the defendants then proceeded to deface the home with red paint and the words, “Brooklyn Museum, blood on your hands.”

The alleged assailants also left a banner that featured the victim’s name and claimed she had “blood on your hands, war crimes, funds genocide,” prosecutors claimed. The banner included several inverted red triangles, which is a symbol used by the terrorist organization Hamas in its propaganda videos to indicate Israeli targets they plan to attack. A stencil found on the ground at the site had a fingerprint covered in red paint that belonged to Schubiner.

Pelton then allegedly drove the group in her car to Pasternak’s residence in another area of Brooklyn. A video camera was painted over again to hide their identity as the defendants defaced the entrance of Pasternak’s apartment building with red paint, including an anarchy symbol and red inverted triangles, prosecutors said. The assailants allegedly hung a banner that described Pasternak as a “White Supremacist Zionist” with red handprints and accused her of funding genocide. Gonzalez said the banners also had the words “Blood on your hands.”

This is not peaceful protest or free speech. This is a crime, and it’s overt, unacceptable antisemitism.

These actions will never be tolerated in New York City for any reason. I’m sorry to Anne Pasternak and members of @brooklynmuseum‘s board who woke up to hatred like this.

I… pic.twitter.com/vi17PumBoM

— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) June 12, 2024

The defendants then headed in Pelton’s car to Manhattan, where Schubiner and the unapprehended others were captured on surveillance footage spraying red paint on a building in Lenox Hill where Vogelstein lives, according to prosecutors. They allegedly painted her name, the red inverted triangles, and an anarchy symbol.

Shortly after the alleged hate crimes took place, an anonymous group claiming responsibility for the vandalism released a statement to Hyperallergic in which they cited the Brooklyn Museum’s “complicity in the Palestinian genocide” and ties that its board members have to weapon manufacturing and Israeli military interests, claims that museum officials have denied. The anonymous group said the vandalism was done in response to a heavily policed pro-Palestinian protest on May 31 at the museum, where dozens were arrested by the New York City Police Department (NYPD).

“Our action is a retaliation against the museum’s direct connections to the networks that materially support the genocidal entity as well as its collaboration with the fascist NYPD,” the statement said.

Mass anti-Israel protests took place in late May outside the Brooklyn Museum, one of the oldest and largest art museums in the country. Activists demanded that the institution divest from Israel and demonstrators from groups like the pro-Palestinian organization Within Our Lifetime hung a banner over the museum’s main entrance that called on the institution to “divest from genocide.” More than 30  protesters were reportedly arrested at the museum after occupying much of the lobby area, clashing with police inside and outside of the building, and defacing an outdoor sculpture with graffiti.

“There was damage to existing and newly installed artwork on our plaza,” a museum spokesperson said at the time, as reported by Reuters. “Protesters entered the building, and our public safety staff were physically and verbally harassed.”

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