Hateful messages outside a Battle Point home leave a Jewish family concerned.

At a garage sale a few years back, Paul Travis bought a $50 wooden rowboat for his kids.

It wasn’t the Queen Mary, but it looked seaworthy and seemed like a fun way to spend time with his family.

The boat resided quietly in the yard of Travis’ Battle Point Drive home until it was stolen, recovered and then struck by a series of vandalism incidents.

“I thought it was a little bit odd,” Travis said of the mischief.

But he didn’t dwell on it. Instead, he painted a message on the rickety old vessel: “Quit tampering – Paul Travis.”

By including his name, he figured it would be easy to recover the boat if it was taken again.

Then, a few weeks ago, Travis discovered a much more piercing message on the boat in the form of graffiti that included a swastika and the word “nazi.” A racial slur was also spray-painted on a neighbor’s fence.

Travis, who is Jewish, was initially shocked and saddened by the display. Now, in light of the conflict in the Middle East and last week’s shooting at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, he’s also concerned.

“It’s starting to hit home because I’m Jewish and we put up Hanukkah candles in our windows every year,” Travis said, adding that his mailbox was recently blown up by a pipe bomb. “I hoped the police department would take this seriously.”

Bainbridge Police Lt. Phil Hawkins said the department investigated the incident, but police have no suspects and don’t believe it was connected with any kind of larger movement or organization.

“It (the graffiti) sent kind of a mixed message,” said Hawkins, of the inclusion of both racial and potentially anti-semitic messages.

Hawkins said police are careful not to make assumptions about swastikas because they represent different things depending on the context in which they’re used.

“A swastika on a Jewish temple would have a different meaning than it would in a kid’s notebook,” he said.

“There has been nothing this year in the city or the county that indicate this is part of a movement. If red flags begin to tell us this is an ongoing issue, then we’ll start calling in other community resources.”

Hawkins is already meeting with local Jewish groups in response to last week’s shootings at the Jewish agency in Seattle. He’ll be meeting next week with Travis and other Battle Point neighbors, at Travis’ request.

Two weeks ago, Travis sent a letter to 50 nearby households to initiate discussion about the graffiti and to petition neighbors to sign a public letter of support against the vandalism.

In addition to being personally offended, Travis said he was concerned about how incidents like this reflect on the island as a whole.

“I’m ashamed for my neighborhood,” he said of the graffiti, which was visible to recent neighborhood house-guests.

Hate crimes – and widespread community anger in response to them – are not unprecedented on the island.

In 2001, some 1,000 marchers gathered in downtown Winslow for an anti-hate rally that was organized in response to the vandalism of several Jewish graves and racist graffiti at the Filipino-American hall.

Travis – who said he didn’t want to jump to conclusions or overreact to the matter – is hopeful the graffiti was an isolated incident and said he appreciates the support of his neighbors.

“It takes a lot of effort to make relationships work,” Travis said. “Whether it’s a family, an organization or a community, if people aren’t willing to put in the work they use gossip and name-calling to hurt others.

“ Let’s use this as a way to shine some light on the problem.”