By Gus Saltonstall
Many Upper West Siders will be familiar with the “Messiah Is Here!” signs placed on traffic signal boxes across the neighborhood.
In the wake of the New York Knicks championship on Saturday, someone has stuck a picture of OG Anunoby’s face on nearly 10 of these Messiah signs on Amsterdam Avenue, between West 79th and 80th streets, according to a count Monday morning by West Side Rag.
Here is where the Rag found the Messiah signs with Anunoby’s face.
- East corner of West 79th Street and Amsterdam (2)
- West corner of West 79th Street and Amsterdam (1)
- East corner of West 80th Street and Amsterdam (4)
- West corner of West 80th Street and Amsterdam (2)
Anunoby averaged 21 points a game in the NBA Finals, none bigger than his tip-in game winner to secure Game 4 at Madison Square Garden.
The ‘Messiah Is Here!’ signs first started going up in 2022 and are connected to Chadbad, otherwise known as Lubavitch, which is a Hasidic movement within Orthodox Judaism. You can read more about the Messiah stickers in a Forward article from 2022 — HERE.
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Yeah!
Could someone do it on 100 St WEA the SE corner. Please.
Someone please do it on every one of those signs all over NYC! Or just take the signs down? (Well, that’s probably harder…)
And 90th WEA too, please!
I like it!
Keep it coming! lol
I wish people wouldn’t vandalize public space with posters for their private causes, covering them with Knicks stickers is appropriate.
If you don’t like graffiti, might I recommend Long Island sir?
lol!!!
Oh sheesh, with everything you promote here I woudn’t be complaining about anything that’s happening in public spaces. People are happy…it’s only a sticker…it will eventually fade away. 😊
You’ll notice I stick to leaving my thoughts in the comment section where it’s appropriate, not plastering the neighborhood in hundreds of stickers.
The messiah stickers have been there for more than four years now and should have been taken down immediately.
You’ll be sorry when the messiah returns and you didn’t prepare.
Haha
I love this. Even though defacing these signal boxes with ANY sticker is wrong, I’m much happier with a newer, younger, “messiah.”
Excellent improvement! What a great neighborhood
LOL! But I think this spot could be shared with the great Jalen Brunson, MVP! Go Knicks!!
Geni.com tells me that the reb was a distant cousin but I’m all for this!
Are you saying the Rebbe and OG Anunoby are distant cousins?!?
I took a picture of one of those the other day
Gotta love graffiti!
Reminds me of COST and REVS back in the day. How many of you were around for that? We could all use a little more street art these days.
Truth is an absolute defense!
Love it!!!
Absolutely brilliant
I’ll allow it
You have to love it!!! Only on the UWS!
How does Chadbad, and identifiable others, get away with sullying and damaging City property with posts of any kind? They should be fined and required to remove them posthaste. I can’t tell you how many have been removed by our block association.
Aw c’mon, they’re hilarious. And the Knicks stickers are even better. I dont want to live in a city devoid of this kind of expression (so innocuous in this case). Clean would be nice but not sterile.
This is a definite improvement over the Chadbad defacement, for which they should have been fined.
Any Knicks sticker is something a majority can agree on and enjoy.
I find this very amusing since I find those posters unbelievably irritating. Not based on religion, but based on the fact that they are illegal and unsightly. Local Law 10-119 makes “postering” on any public property illegal. The fine is $75 per poster, up to a total of $10,000. (And I wonder if the organization that put up the “messiah” posters was ever fined.)
What is perhaps even MORE annoying is that the #1 violators of the law are politicians putting up campaign posters – which they KNOW are illegal, but they do it anyway. So people who want to be or remain those who write our laws actually BREAK them in order to secure or keep their jobs. It is a wildly blatant hypocrisy.
And yes, some do get fined. Scott Stringer was fined in the tens of thousands of dollars one year. But the highest fine was paid by Mike Bloomberg during his (illegal) third term campaign: he paid over $100,000 for “postering.”
This would be a good time to note the absurdity of the “Messiah” posters and for whoever posts them to retire them (and not impose the cleanup on the city).
Messiah is here and here and here . . .
LOL LOL LOL!!!
and since that tip-in was done with the right hand, the new composite picture is basketball accurate.
Good point! 🏀
Exactly and they were posted right after game 4 not after game 5
it’s funny, I have to say. As an agnostic person who believes in freedom of religion and have a special place in my heart for the Jewish culture, this is just a commentary on sports fans and how they worship their team as much as some worship religious figures! Separation of church and state is important, and as much as I respect Rabbi Schnerson (sp?), this is still funny to me. If it were Jesus, the pope, or any other religious figure, this would still be funny.
I approve of this editorial decision. OG is indeed the messiah.