OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — The moment caught on surveillance footage shows a man walking around the Tri-Faith Initiative campus placing neo-nazi stickers on two of the poles outside the synagogue.
This incident is unfortunately nothing new for places of worship and executive director Nate Shapiro said we are lucky it wasn't something more serious.
"There are people that feel this way. There are people that are motivated by hatred. I don't think it's representative of most people in this country. I don't think it's representative of most people in Omaha,” said Shapiro.
Shapiro said he knew it was right to report the incident to the police, but wrestled with the idea of talking publicly about it.
He adds that oftentimes people do these acts of hate just to get attention, something Shapiro did not want to happen. But he did want to use this opportunity to give this message to the individual.
"I have a message for that person which is I don't want this person's life to be ruined by this bad decision... If I can get this guy to agree to sit down with us and talk it out and talk about what’s motivating him to do this and show him that we are not this evil presence that according to these stickers he thinks that we are,” said Shapiro.
He added that by sending this message hopefully, some good can come of it.
Shapiro said he has empathy for this individual as there must be something in their life that is missing and they are motivated by hate, something Shapiro would hope to turn around.
The stickers were placed on the poles depicting a person breaking the Star of David. There was also a website to a neo-Nazi recruiting page.
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