Kaila White

The Arizona Republic

PHOENIX — When Shoshana and Ari Simones pulled into their driveway on the Fourth of July, home from a long holiday weekend visiting friends and family in Atlanta, they noticed papers taped to their mailbox.

At first they thought they just missed a neighborhood notification, so they went inside and put their baby girl to bed. Ari went back out to check and came in with a note from a neighbor.

"She said, 'I’m so sorry and so disgusted,' so we kind of knew before we looked at it," Shoshana said. "I burst into tears before I even saw it."

Under the papers were two pieces of graffiti in black spray paint: a swastika and the word "Jew." The neighbor saw it Tuesday morning and taped paper on top to hide it.

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The Simoneses are Jewish; Ari's grandparents both fled the Holocaust as teenagers and lost their families, Shoshana said.

"To see this resurfacing 80 years later is really upsetting," she said. " 'Devastating' is the only word we’ve been able to use to describe it."

Anti-Semitism up close

Shoshana, 29, is a "wish manager" with Make-A-Wish Arizona, helping create the plans to make kids' wishes come true. Ari, 30, works in the Arizona Department of Child Safety's Office of Child Welfare Investigations.

They've never experienced anti-Semitism up close.

"We love our neighborhood. There are a lot of Jewish families; we live very close to our synagogue, our place of worship; we will walk to services and people will wave hello."

Near the front door on their home in Phoenix hangs a mezuzah, which is a small parchment of handwritten biblical verses rolled into a case, a common fixture on Jewish homes.

"On the one hand, I’d like to write it off, this is teenagers with too much time on their hands, but they chose a very specific symbol of hate," she said.

"Spray-painting genitalia on a mailbox is childish vandalism. This isn’t."

Phoenix police have an open investigation into the incident, spokesman Sgt. Jonathan Howard said Wednesday.

Data: Anti-Semitism on the rise

In 2016, there was a 34% year-over-year increase in anti-Semitic incidents including assault, harassment and vandalism across the country, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

The first quarter of this year has seen an 86% jump in incidents.

In Arizona, there were four reported anti-Semitic incidents in 2015 and 10 in 2016. In the first quarter of this year there were 14, according to the ADL.

Four people were arrested this year on suspicion of contorting a Chandler family's decorative light-up menorah into a swastika in December.

In February, Jewish community centers in Scottsdale and Tucson received bomb threats.

On Wednesday morning, the couple decided to remove the paper so that people can see the graffiti.

"We’re not going to let this frighten us. I think for my husband it’s more standing up, not hiding who are,'' Shoshana said.

"Sadness seems to be the main feeling," she added. "I mean, we’re angry and offended and disheartened, but we’re not scared and we’re not ashamed and we’re proud to be Jews."

Although neighbors have offered to paint over it, the Simoneses haven't decided yet if or how they will cover up the graffiti. They may just cover the swastika but leave the word "Jew" for others to see, perhaps painting the word "proud" over it.

"We’re not gonna be afraid, we’re not gonna back down, and it’s important people still feel comfortable and proud being who they are whatever religion or minority they are," Shoshana said.

No reliable federal data exists in the United States that documents hate crimes or incidents of prejudice and intimidation.

The Arizona Republic is among several news organizations, civil-rights groups and technology companies partnered with ProPublica, a non-profit investigative newsroom, to document hate incidents through a database.

If you have been the victim of a hate incident, please contribute to the Documenting Hate database and follow the endeavor on Facebook and Twitter.