WORCESTER, Mass. – The Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts is condemning the vandalism of a billboard on Interstate-290 placed by an organization working to call out Jewish hate.

The billboard originally read “Let’s be clear: Hamas is your problem too,” along with a link to the JewBelong website. The group says its mission includes combatting antisemitism.

Sometime around Christmas Eve, the billboard was painted over and changed to a pro-Hamas message.

Steven Schimmel, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts, called the billboard’s defacement “deplorable” and said the vandalism must be handled with swift action and strong condemnation.

“This is in a high visibility location, so those who perpetrated this attack certainly were brazen and it’s highly likely that they’ll be caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent,” Schimmel said. “We have to keep in mind that Hamas is a designated terror group, and this vandalism shows support for terrorism. So, it’s going to be handled with severity.”

This is the second time a JewBelong billboard in Worcester has been vandalized. In November, someone spray painted "Israel is the real terrorist" in the space below the billboard’s original text.