A new synagogue’s rite of passage in 2024: Shattered glass
In less than a year since opening, Kahal Ahavas Yisroel has had its windows broken twice

The entrance to Kahal Ahavas Yisroel, an Orthodox synagogue in Los Angeles, after it was vandalized on July 25. The glass panels have since been boarded up. Courtesy of Osher Netkin
When Osher Netkin’s backyard prayer group moved into a storefront in a busy Los Angeles retail district last August, they made a conscious decision not to mark the building with the synagogue’s name.
“We specifically didn’t put any menorahs — we didn’t put anything,” said Netkin, who co-founded the congregation, Kahal Ahavas Yisroel, in 2021. “The only thing is a mezuzah.”
In spite of its low profile, however, the synagogue has become a target. In June, vandals smashed a window at its entrance, forcing thousands of dollars in repairs, Netkin said. Shortly after it was replaced, two more windows were broken, the vandals appearing to record the act — and this time, getting caught on camera themselves.
The Los Angeles Police Department said it is investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Since the second incident, caught on camera July 25, Netkin says he’s had to convince members not to quit the synagogue, with others considering arming themselves. And he said the building’s owner is threatening to evict them because he doesn’t want any more trouble.
“People are very scared,” Netkin, 33, said. “People don’t want to show up.”
Netkin’s fledgling synagogue in Hollywood is one of several Jewish institutions across the country vandalized in recent weeks, and anti-Israel and antisemitic graffiti is proliferating.
A Chabad synagogue in Pittsburgh was spray painted Sunday night with “Jews 4 Palestine” and an inverted red triangle. At about the same time, vandals scrawled “Funds genocide ♥ Jews, Hate Zionist” on a sign outside the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. More anti-Zionist vandalism appeared in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood Monday: a branch of Citibank — often protested for its ties to Israel — was covered in red paint. Vandals also smashed the window of a Long Island diner that was covered with posters of hostages abducted during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
After the first incident at Kahal Ahavas Yisroel, the synagogue installed security cameras, which recorded two men in hooded sweatshirts approaching the building on foot at around 11 p.m. on July 25. In video that Netkin has shared publicly, one of the men takes out his phone and hands it to the other, who uses it to take flash pictures while the first swings a hammer at the windows. Then they run away.
The whole incident lasted under a minute.
It’s unclear whether the same suspects were involved in the incident last month. In both cases, the damage was limited to broken windows.
“I feel scarred a little bit, you know?” Netkin said. “You put your heart and soul into something — but I’m never gonna let a terrorist beat me. That’s not how I’m going to let life work.”
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 Is this new documentary giving voice to American Jewish anguish — or simply stoking fear?
In Case You Missed It
-
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
-
Fast Forward Katrina Armstrong steps down as Columbia president after White House pressure over antisemitism
-
Yiddish אַ בליק צוריק אויף די פֿאָרווערטס־רעקלאַמעס פֿאַר פּסח A look back at the Forward ads for Passover products
קאָקאַ־קאָלאַ“, „מאַקסוועל האַוז“ און אַנדערע גרויסע פֿירמעס האָבן דעמאָלט רעקלאַמירט אינעם פֿאָרווערטס
-
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.