Swastikas and anti-Semitic messages were found scrawled on a playground in Brighton Beach, the latest in a series of incidents citywide.

Councilman Chaim Deutsch's office is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest of the person who scrawled the swastikas, which were found Thursday. They have since been removed.

Deutsch, who not only represents the district but is also chairman of the City Council's Jewish Caucus, says he was notified of the swastikas by a constituent and immediately called police to investigate. The graffiti was found in an area with a large Jewish community and Holocaust survivors.  

The woman who reported the graffiti said she was at the playground with her kids when she saw the hateful signs.

"I didn't want my kids to see it or to ask questions, so I just pretended there was nothing there," says the woman, who asked to not be identified.

This comes just days after anti-Semitic graffiti was also discovered in Queens.

 

Regarding these two incidents, Gov. Andrew Cuomo released a statement, saying in part, "I am directing the New York State Police Hate Crimes Task Force to provide assistance to the NYPD in the investigation into this despicable act as well as the anti-Semitic graffiti in Queens."

Earlier this year, City Council passed a series of bills to create a new Office of Hate Crimes Prevention. Deutsch says he and his co-sponsors are calling on the mayor to implement the bill quickly.