‘Jude’ Etched On Front Door Of Los Angeles Synagogue
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
The word “Jude” was carved under a Star of David on the front door of a Los Angeles synagogue on Saturday, the Jewish Journal reported.
A bystander saw an unidentified person create the symbols into the Temple Mishkon Tephilo in Venice and called the police, which notified Rabbi Gabriel Botnick. It was the synagogue’s first anti-Semitic incident, Botnick told the Jewish Journal. “Jude” means Jew in German.
“It’s somewhat typical in [Nazi] Germany and what people would do to Jewish businesses,” he said. “Seeing ‘Jude’ written on there as clearly a neo-Nazi-type term… that was very upsetting to me. That’s not anything I’ve ever encountered in this neighborhood.”
In response, Temple Mishkon Tephilo has been in touch with the police, the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles Community Security Initiative.
“There should be zero tolerance for anti-Semitism in our city,” American Jewish Committee Los Angeles acting chief of staff Dganit Abramoff told the Jewish Journal. “We stand in solidarity with Miskhon Tephilo and Rabbi Botnick, who worked with us in the aftermath of the Pittsburgh massacre to stand up against hate. Those who attempt to instill fear in our community only make us stronger.”
Alyssa Fisher is a writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
