Racist Message Spelled Out In New Jersey Synagogue Skylights
Congregation Beth Tikvah in Evershan Township, New Jersey. Image by Google Maps
(JTA) — A racist message was written in the skylight windows of a New Jersey synagogue using shingles torn off the building’s roof to form the letters.
Rabbi Nathan Weiner of Congregation Beth Tikvah in Evesham Township, which is located in the southern part of the state about 25 miles from Philadelphia, said the word was racist and homophobic and not specifically anti-Semitic. The local media did not report the word.
Investigators took photos of the word before removing the shingles. There is no surveillance video of the incident, according to reports.
Weiner told the local Fox News affiliate that he noticed the word spelled out on the skylights on Friday night as he walked into the building.
“It felt to me like it was an outlet for hate,” the rabbi said.
Weiner said he has received calls and emails from local pastors and reverends, as well as rabbis of other synagogues, asking what they can do to help and support the 200-family congregation.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
, editor-in-chiefSupport our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
