Beverly Hills Persian Synagogue Vandalized On Shabbat, Torahs Damaged

Nessah Synagogue, Beverly Hills, California Image by Glenn Francis/www.PacificProDigital.com
(JTA) — A synagogue in Beverly Hills was vandalized in what police are investigating as a hate crime.
At approximately 2 a.m. Saturday, according to a statement from the Beverly Hills Police Department, a suspect described as a white male entered the Nessah Synagogue, a Persian Jewish congregation, and vandalized the sanctuary.
Photos of the damage posted to Twitter show a Torah scroll unrolled, crumpled and torn at the seams, as well as broken glass and a torn page from a prayerbook. The police statement said the vandal “moved throughout the sanctuary, heavily ransacking the interior.” The statement said the vandal overturned furniture and caused very limited structural damage.
No one was in the synagogue at the time. The police statement said the suspect left no “markings or other overt signs of anti-Semitism.”
Evidence of today’s heinous crime at Nessah Synagogue. pic.twitter.com/WcBK8uh26w
— (((Sam Yebri))) (@samyebri) December 15, 2019
“This cowardly attack hits at the heart of who we are as a community,” said Beverly Hills Mayor John Mirisch, according to the police statement. “It is not just an attack on the Jewish community of Beverly Hills; it’s an attack on all of us.”
The vandalism comes days after four people died in a shooting attack on Tuesday centered on a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
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 polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
- 4
Opinion Mike Huckabee said there’s ‘no such thing as a Palestinian.’ It’s worth thinking about what that means
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
-
Fast Forward Yarden Bibas says ‘I am here because of Trump’ and pleads with him to stop the Gaza war
-
Fast Forward Trump’s plan to enlist Elon Musk began at Lubavitcher Rebbe’s grave
-
Film & TV In this Jewish family, everybody needs therapy — especially the therapists themselves
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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 [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.