{"id":278672,"date":"2026-05-20T22:08:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/278672\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T22:08:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:08:25","slug":"german-tourist-apologizes-after-writing-anti-semitic-message-on-miami-beach-park-bench","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/278672\/","title":{"rendered":"German tourist apologizes after writing anti-Semitic message on Miami Beach park bench"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MIAMI BEACH, Fla.  \u2014 A German tourist accused of helping conceal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2026\/05\/19\/police-2-german-men-arrested-after-anti-semitic-message-written-on-miami-beach-park-bench\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2026\/05\/19\/police-2-german-men-arrested-after-anti-semitic-message-written-on-miami-beach-park-bench\/\">anti-Semitic graffiti on a rainbow-colored bench in Miami Beach<\/a> apologized Wednesday after bonding out of jail, telling Local 10 News, \u201cSorry for this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Gunther Manfred Jekschtat, 63, Laubach, Hesse, spoke exclusively to Local 10 News a day after he and fellow German tourist Christoph Rehak, 58, of Gedern, Hesse, were arrested on criminal mischief charges tied to the vandalism at Lummus Park.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779314905_431_NIXVNOFM4FGLNILGDSLIKORE2U.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/>From left: Christoph Rehak and Gunther Manfred Jekschtat. (MDCR) (Miami-Dade Corrections &amp; Rehabilitation) <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Miami Beach police said the graffiti \u2014 which included a swastika and the phrase \u201cAdolf was here\u201d \u2014 was discovered Monday on an \u201cLGBTQIA+ bench\u201d near 12th Street and Ocean Drive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">As Jekschtat walked out of jail Wednesday, he stopped to answer questions from Local 10 News instead of avoiding cameras.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI sit beside the other boy. I don\u2019t know. I sit beside the other boy (who) wrote it down,\u201d Jekschtat said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">When asked what he wanted to say to people offended by the graffiti, Jekschtat repeatedly apologized.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cSorry, I can say sorry for this,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not OK what they do, what we do. Sorry, sorry for this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Jekschtat also said, \u201cIt was a big mistake,\u201d adding, \u201cWe are also no Nazi boys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Rehak, who bonded out Tuesday night, did not speak to Local 10 News and ran from cameras.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">According to arrest reports, surveillance video showed Rehak borrowing a marker before the two men sat on the bench together. Police said Rehak wrote the graffiti while Jekschtat used his body to block others from seeing what was happening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Investigators said both men later admitted involvement. Police said Rehak described the message as a \u201cjoke,\u201d while Jekschtat said he was trying to \u201cdefend his friend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner condemned the vandalism, calling it \u201chorrific\u201d and saying there is \u201cno place for hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The bench has since been removed for repairs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Authorities said both men remain charged with criminal mischief and were ordered to stay away from the area of 12th Street and Ocean Drive. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">While it was learned in court that they have both been in the U.S. for 3 1\/2 weeks on vacation, they will now need permission from the judge to leave the country. Their next court date has been scheduled for May 28. <\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI BEACH, Fla. \u2014 A German tourist accused of helping conceal anti-Semitic graffiti on a rainbow-colored bench in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-278672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}