Bagel cafe hit with antisemitic vandalism

Popular Jewish-owned bagel cafe Lox in a Box has been targeted with antisemitic vandalism, with a swastika etched into the frontage of its new Paddington venue weeks before its opening.

Owner Candy Berger, granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, discovered the vandalism when she arrived at the Oxford Street location last Tuesday morning, just days after removing paper coverings to reveal the space’s hand-painted windows.

“I won’t pretend this didn’t shake me,” Berger wrote on social media. “I stood there in shock, thinking about what that symbol represents. What it has meant to my people. What it has cost us, generation after generation. I am the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, and today felt like a punch that landed deeper than most.”

Berger said the timing of the attack, just before Pesach, was “calculated”.

“A time where we remember that the Jewish people have been marked before. Hunted before. Silenced before. Told to disappear before. And yet, we are still here,” she said.

“We will not let this break us. We will not let it close our doors or dim the light of something we’ve worked so hard to build. That is what hate wants and we refuse to give it that. Our people have survived too much to be shaken by the actions of a coward.”

A NSW Police spokesperson confirmed officers from the Surry Hills Police Area Command have launched an investigation.

It is not the first time Lox in a Box has been targeted. Following the Bondi terror attack in December, the business received an influx of negative antisemitic online reviews. Similar one-star Google ratings have been posted about the Paddington cafe despite it not yet having opened.

Berger gave a shout out to police and the Community Security Group for their response, before urging others not to stay silent.

“Speak up. Stand with us. Because hate grows in silence, and we refuse to give it that.”