Northern California Synagogue Gets Windows Smashed
SAN FRANCISCO (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — Police are investigating what appears to be vandalism at Temple Israel in the Bay Area city of Alameda.
At about 6 p.m. on Aug. 17, congregational president Genevieve Pastor-Cohen sent an email to the congregation stating, “in the morning, it was discovered that two classroom windows had been smashed,” and noting that police and Harbor Bay Security had been notified.
“During our Weds. Aug 16th Board of Directors meeting, we discussed the possibility of our synagogue being a target in our small town of Alameda especially with the ongoing expression of bigotry and anti-Semitism,” the letter continued. “It breaks my heart and soul to be exposed to this type of mindless and senseless action especially aimed at the community I (we) love.”
Congregant Mel Waldorf went to the synagogue after he received the email, and told J. that one of the windows that had been smashed “was where kids had painted Stars of David.”
He also said that another window that noted this was “the new Temple Israel” had been smashed. He said that police took away a rock the assailants had used to try and smash in the front door.
“There’s no question that the attacker knew this was a Jewish institution,” he told J.
In her email to the congregation, Pastor-Cohen noted that a security plan had been developed this year by a synagogue task force, and added that the plan will be reexamined after this incident “to ensure our community is protected and safe from harm especially with our High Holy Days coming upon us.”
Police told J. that a report had been filed, and the case was being investigated. No further details were available at press time.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO