Former Catholic school vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti

(CHICAGO) A shuttered Catholic school was vandalized with racist and anti-Semitic graffiti last month in the Jefferson Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side.

Sometime after 8 p.m. Jan. 27, vandals broke into the former St. Cornelius Catholic School building, 5252 N. Long Ave., and used paint to write racist and anti-Semitic graffiti in a hallway, Chicago Police said. Bottles of alcohol and candy wrappers also were found.

St. Cornelius School closed last year. The Archdiocese of Chicago has not responded to an emailed request for information.

Two days before the school was vandalized, someone spray painted a garage in the Beverly neighborhood on the Far South Side with racist messages and swastikas, police said. And early Saturday morning, someone got out of an SUV, affixed swastikas to the Chicago Loop Synagogue and smashed a window before driving away.