Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Beverly Hills Persian Synagogue Vandalized On Shabbat, Torahs Damaged

(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.”

“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.

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 [email protected], 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.