Swastika stickers turned up on private homes across Bexley sometime around Oct. 18, and police are now asking anyone with Ring doorbell footage to come forward. Multiple houses were targeted, officers say, along with several election signs that were also damaged, though the specific addresses and streets hit have not been made public.
Bexley police say they began receiving reports of the property damage and swastika stickers on Oct. 19, a day after investigators believe the vandalism actually took place, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Police are working with the residents whose homes were affected, and Bexley Police Chief Gary Lewis said there is no tolerance for hate or antisemitic imagery, per the same account.
Mayor Calls It More Than Vandalism
Bexley Mayor Michael Price condemned the stickers in a Facebook post, describing the incident as an act more shocking and threatening than mere vandalism. He said the swastika represents a regime founded in bigotry and violence, and that using the symbol is a hateful and threatening tactic that will not be tolerated in Bexley, the report notes. Price urged neighbors to look out for one another and to treat each other with dignity and kindness. The Dispatch said it left a phone message with Price seeking further comment on Oct. 20.
Lewis also pointed to other central Ohio communities that have recently dealt with hate imagery, saying Clintonville and Worthington had been targeted with leaflets and flyers bearing Ku Klux Klan imagery left in the road. Separately, hateful flyers promoting the KKK were found in several central Ohio neighborhoods, including near schools in Clintonville. Worthington police confirmed flyers were placed around the city on a Monday night, according to Columbus Navigator. More flyers were found Tuesday morning near World Language Middle School and Indian Springs Elementary School in Clintonville, according to WOSU.
A Pattern of Incidents in the Bexley Area
This is not the first time antisemitism has surfaced near Bexley since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. At least three reports of antisemitism have occurred in Bexley and its surrounding areas during that period, according to NBC4, which reported that two of those incidents happened at homes flying an Israeli flag while a third took place at a Columbus synagogue.
The vandalism also arrives amid a broader, if uneven, statistical picture. The Anti-Defamation League tracked 6,274 antisemitic incidents nationwide in 2025, making it the third-highest year on record since the organization began tracking such data in 1979, according to the ADL. That figure was 33% lower than the 9,354 incidents tabulated in 2024, but still five times higher than a decade earlier, and the ADL reported an average of 17 antisemitic incidents per day in 2025, compared with an average of eight per day between 2020 and 2022.
Harassment Down, Assaults Up Statewide
Ohio's numbers moved in the same direction as the national trend. The state recorded 117 antisemitic incidents in 2025, down from 233 in 2024 and 237 in 2023, according to the Ohio Capital Journal. Across the broader Ohio River Valley region, antisemitic incidents fell 47%, from 394 in 2024 to 209 in 2025, with campus-specific incidents dropping from 77 to 31 over the same span, per the Cleveland Jewish News.
But the decline in harassment and vandalism has come alongside a troubling rise in violence. Physical antisemitic assaults nationwide increased from 196 in 2024 to 203 in 2025, even as overall incident counts fell, the Ohio Capital Journal reported. The ADL's audit similarly found that incidents of harassment and vandalism decreased while physical assaults increased.
For now, Bexley investigators are focused on identifying whoever placed the stickers and damaged the election signs. Anyone with information or home security footage is asked to contact Bexley police.
