Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Woman Arrested For Vandalizing North Carolina Synagogue

(JTA) — A local woman has been arrested for vandalizing a Messianic synagogue in Cary, North Carolina, and damaging the property of other people due to her hatred of people of other religions.

Lisa Marie Burns, 57, was arrested on Friday for allegedly throwing a rock through the window of Congregation of Shaarei Shalom and damaging its front door the previous day. She is also accused of vandalizing the two cars and egging the driveway of the home belonging to a neighbor with an ethnic surname.

“During interviews with the suspect, she admitted to both acts of vandalism and indicated her disdain for people of other religions and ethnic backgrounds,” Cary police said in a release, CBS17 reported.

She is charged with injury to personal property, teaching ethnic intimidation, and injury to real property.

The Cary Police Department is working with federal authorities to determine whether Burns could be charged with a hate crime.

In November, the son of a North Carolina Court of Appeals judge made threats against the same synagogue.

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.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version