Anti-Semitic Messages Painted On Romanian Synagogue

Image by Jacob W. Gruber

By JTA June 14, 2017

(JTA) — Anti-Semitic messages were found painted on the wall of a synagogue in Romania.

“Holocaust Never Happened” and “All the Best” with a Star of David were painted in black and red on the outside of the Synagogue of Deportees Memorial Temple in Cluj-Napoca, in northwestern Romania.

Police were called about the graffiti on Monday by representatives of the city’s Jewish community, though the vandalism may have taken place over the weekend, according to local reports.

Though the synagogue is located on a main thoroughfare in the city, no witnesses have come forward with information about the vandalism.

Built in 1886, the synagogue was destroyed during Allied bombardments in June 1944. It was rebuilt and reinaugurated in 1947, when it was dedicated to the memory of the over 16,000 Jews deported from Cluj in May-June 1944 and exterminated in Auschwitz.

The area’s Jewish community of about 400 uses the synagogue.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO