Rabbi’s Speech Sparks Vandalism at Copenhagen Church in Gunman’s Neighborhood
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
A Copenhagen church was vandalized in an anti-Semitic event hours before a rabbi was scheduled to speak there.
“Free Gaza” and “Close the Death Camps” was spray-painted on the door of the Anna Church in the Copenhagen district of Nørrebro overnight Sunday, the Local reported. Bricks also were thrown through some of the church’s windows.
Bent Melchior, Denmark’s former chief rabbi, was scheduled to speak at the church on Sunday about the 70th anniversary of the county’s liberation from the Nazis.
Without being totally immodest, I have to admit that it was directed at me. I am sorry that there are such idiots around, and I am full of regret that I had to be the occasion for such a thing, ” Melchior told the Danish newspaper Politiken.
The rabbi reportedly had received repeated death threats, some very specific. The lecture was held Sunday as planned.
Copenhagen Police are treating the incident as being politically motivated, according to the report.
In February, a terror attack outside a Copenhagen synagogue left a Jewish volunteer security guard dead.
The accused gunman, whose parents are Palestinian, lived in Norrebro not far from the church.
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