Kenosha synagogue vandalized with ‘Free Palestine’ graffiti during protests

The Kenosha synagogue, Beth Hillel, has been boarded up to protect it from racial unrest. Image by Courtesy of Rabbi Dena Feingold

By Molly Boigon August 27, 2020

Vandals spray-painted “Free Palestine” in front of Beth Hillel Temple during demonstrations protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha early Thursday morning.

A reporter for the conservative news outlet Town Hall tweeted a video displaying the graffiti. Other property in Kenosha, including at least one church, also were vandalized or otherwise took damage during the evening.

Beth Hillel, a Reform synagogue, had removed its live-in caretaker from the building, taken out the Torah scrolls and boarded up the temple’s windows Wednesday.

Before the graffiti incident, the synagogue’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Dena Feingold, told The Forward in an interview that worries about damage to the temple were of secondary concern.

“I think the bigger issue is more important than the possible damage that our building might incur,” she said. “How do you bring about change? Because it has to do with systemic racism. It has to do with implicit bias. With major institutions in our society and how they operate, and how they view them.”

During the nationwide protests related to the police killing of George Floyd in May, vandals spray-painted “free Palestine” and “fuck Israel” on Congregation Beth Israel in Los Angeles.

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.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount