The heroes who destroyed a Nazi mural

Peter and Zechariah Mehler will walk into a Milwaukee, Wisconsin court room this Thursday and face three years in jail for the crime of destroying a mural which shows a swastika within the Star of David and reads, "The irony of becoming what you once hated."

This father and son are heroes who deserve keys to the city, not to be facing years in jail. What a despicable terrible travesty of justice for them to be under such stress and expense as to face a trial.

Can one imagine what would happen in a black neighborhood to a KKK sign or KKK members?

Sadly, many Jews today realize that governments aren’t protecting us and we must stand up to Jew haters.

There has been a 570% increase in antisemitic incidents since 2015 in Milwaukee and Jews who stand up to Jew-haters and remove Nazi murals must not face any punishment.

We live in a society where we see anti-American forces destroying cities nationwide, campuses being desecrated and those who harm Jews behave with impunity. A Nazi mural is incitement to further Anti-Semitic violence which is already prevalent in Milwaukee.

Proud Jews and Americans, the Mehlers took action as every decent person must do. Jews nationwide must stand up to Jew haters and governments who for too long have permitted Jew-haters to behave as they wish. The Milwaukee DA must drop all charges immediately. It is despicable they are facing a trial. Those who hate Jews and hate America must be challenged, not coddled. We are proud of this family who took action, and they are role models.

Before the incident, District 8 Alderwoman JoCasta Zamarripa said, "There is no place in our city for a mural that lifts up a swastika" and all 15 common council members sent statements asking for it to be taken down. The Milwaukee Jewish Federation described the mural as “horribly antisemitic” in a Facebook post.

Yet, in this world there are people who talk and people who do. There are those among us who don’t want to wait for the inevitable beating or terrible scene for Jews and hear some lazy speech from a politician. Those who take it down and take action are heroes.

This is 2024 and we have had enough. As Israel’s late great Prime Minister Menachem Begin once said, we are not Jews with trembling knees. We stand up and when we see something, we do something.

The landlord of the building which displayed this mural, Ishsan Atta is a notorious Anti-Semitic Jew hater who has been spreading hatred of Jews in Milwaukee for many years and has previously compared Israel to the Nazis.

The Mehlers have told me they believe in the way of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the great Zionist leader and we have shared with them his words in preparation for court. As Jabotinsky once said about a similar matter,

“Instead of excessive apology and instead of turning our backs to the accusers – as there is nothing to apologize for, and nobody to apologize to – it is long overdue to respond to all current and future accusations, reproaches, suspicions, slanders and denunciations by simply folding our arms and loudly, clearly, coldly and calmly answer, ‘Go to Hell!’

"We are hated not because we are blamed for everything, but we are blamed for everything because we are not loved. We do not have to apologize for anything. We are a people as all other peoples; we do not have any intentions to be better than the rest. We do not have to account to anybody; we are not to sit for anybody’s examination and nobody is old enough to call on us to answer. We came before them. We are what we are, we are good for ourselves, we will not change and we do not want to.”

Simply, the only thing which Peter and Zechariah Mehler should hear from anyone is Thank you for your actions and for keeping our community safe. May we all merit the honor of removing Nazi memorabilia from walls and Nazis from society.

Milwaukee’s DA must immediately drop charges. If he chooses not to Jews and decent people nationwide will avoid this city and realize it’s a city that embraces Nazis. Its really a choice between standing with Nazis or standing against them.

Ronn Torossian is an entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is Chairman of Betar, an international Zionist movement devoted to strong, proud Jews. Zechariah Mehler is President of Betar Milwaukee.