Ever since an incorrectly-depicted swastika was painted outside the home of a Jewish family in Vestavia Hills a few weeks ago, The Birmingham Jewish Federation has been providing support to the family and meeting with school system officials and law enforcement personnel. The BJF has been told that suspects have been identified and an announcement will be coming shortly.

The swastika and other obscenities were painted outside of the home of Richard and Kelly Kahn. The graffiti was directed at their daughter Erin, a senior at Vestavia Hills High School.

The BJF'S Director of Community Relations Joyce Spielberger has been working with the Kahns who wanted to call attention to the incident and reached out to The BJF for help. They felt it was important to let people know that acts of hate and bigotry still occur, and they wanted to use the incident to sensitize the Vestavia Hills community and school system to this problem.

On Tuesday, Joyce met with Vestavia Hills Mayor Alberto "Butch" Zaragoza and Police Chief Dan Rary to talk about the incident and the investigation. Mayor Zaragoza expressed his concern over the incident and said in no way did this act reflect the attitudes of the Vestavia Hills community.

Chief Rary briefed Joyce on the investigation, saying the police and FBI have been going "full court" to obtain evidence needed to press charges. Vestavia Hills police and the FBI expect to make an announcement regarding the case in the next few days. On behalf of The BJF, Joyce expressed her appreciation to Mayor Zaragoza and Chief Rary and briefed them on The BJF's outreach to the school system.

Last week, Joyce and the Kahns met with Vestavia Hills High School principal Cas McWaters and assistant superintendent Dr. Karen DeLano. The purpose was to talk about what may have led up to the incident as well as resources and programs The BJF could help offer to counter hate and encourage respect.

Joyce talked about the Anti -Defamation League's program "No Place for Hate" which addresses such issues and has been recently adopted by over 100 schools in Georgia. Vestavia Hills High School is working on its anti-bullying curriculum this year and training teachers to recognize this type of behavior, and they were interested in learning more about "No Place for Hate."

Mr. McWaters and Dr. DeLano were concerned by the swastika incident and were interested in students learning how to stand up to hate. It was a meaningful discussion and we were able to connect Vestavia Hills to the work and resources of The BJF and the ADL, one of the agencies The BJF helps fund through our annual campaign.

As always, we, at The BJF, have tried to use this difficult situation as an opportunity to build bridges, and we look forward to working with the Vestavia Hills school system and others to be sure that positives continue to come out of this situation.

Operation Grassroots continues to produce success. We got a nice email from a donor who, along with her husband, has been wonderfully generous to many community causes and organizations including The Birmingham Jewish Federation. They had given $4900 to the 2011 BJF Campaign.

"We will add $100 to our pledge for 2012 to bring it to a round number and to help with your special campaign (Operation Grassroots)," she told us in a much-appreciated email.

Operation Grassroots is an unprecedented BJF effort to raise ONE THOUSAND new gifts and increases of at least $100 to receive a $100,000 challenge gift. The lesson above is that if everyone chips in just a little bit -- $100 is less than two dollars a week -- we can lift our campaign to a new level. So far, we've received 85 Operation Grassroots gifts, including the one highlighted here. Only 915 to go!

Thanks to funding from the Sirote Fund of The Birmingham Jewish Foundation and additional contributions from individual donors, we also have funds to match new gifts and increases beyond $100. So, if you are in a position to make a new gift or increase of more than $100, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that your entire new gift or increase will be matched.

To participate, you can respond to this email right now. Just say "yes," give us your name and we will follow up with you. You can also make your contribution by going to the links below, contacting Tiffany Hyche at The BJF at 205-803-1513 or tiffanyh@bjf.org or calling our 24-Hour Operation Grassroots Hotline at 205-803-1514. You can also send a check made out to "BJF Operation Grassroots" to The Birmingham Jewish Federation, PO 130219, Birmingham, AL, 35213.

Click to make an Operation Grassroots payment.

Click to make an Operation Grassroots pledge and be billed.