Swastika spray-painted outside Maine synagogue
Congregation Beth Israel, Bangor, Maine. Image by Google
(JTA) — A swastika was spray-painted in white on the sidewalk in front of a synagogue in Bangor, Maine.
Bangor police are investigating the incident, which occurred Thursday night. Security camera footage taken by Congregation Beth Israel captured clear images of the teenagers who drew the swastika.
“I do hope, rather than criminal mischief or vandalism charges, we can rope these kids into some kind of restorative justice,” Beth Israel President Brian Kresge said in a post on the congregation’s Facebook page.
Kresge used black spray-paint to cover the swastika before the start of the synagogue’s services on Friday evening, which are being held outdoors due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The synagogue installed security cameras in 2012 after anti-Semitic graffiti was spray-painted on the front of the synagogue building.
“For all of us, this isn’t our first rodeo with anti-Semitic graffiti,” Kresge wrote.
The congregation, founded in 1888, is the oldest in Bangor, according to the Bangor Daily News.
The post Swastika spray-painted outside synagogue in Maine appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
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.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
