Image by Facebook

On Friday morning, Naomi Ellis woke up to find the DIY menorah made of hardware supplies decorating her family’s yard in Chandler, Arizona into its spiritual opposite: a swastika.

Image by Facebook

“We talk a lot about the importance of equality and tolerance, loving everybody no matter what,” she told the Washington Post, describing how she had to tell her two young sons about the vandalism. “I had to tell them that not everybody feels that way. Some people are ignorant, and this is what they do.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

“This is the real reality that we live in: People hate us for no reason or want us to feel scared for who we are. That’s not something I wanted to have to tell them,” she added.

Police were said to be investigating the incident as disorderly conduct, and the local Reform congregation Temple Emanuel intends to help the family relight the menorah once it is rebuilt over the next day.

Hate crimes this holiday season have focused on menorahs, a visible symbol of Jewish identity and pride which appear throughout the country in public spaces. Earlier this week, two displays in Brooklyn were found defaced, with their arms torn off and pulled up from their base.

“Local friends, this is the 2nd hate crime perpetrated against our local Jewish community this Chanukah,” wrote Rabbi Schmuly Yanklowitz, the leader of the Valley Beit Midrash in the Pheonix metro area, wrote in a Facebook post. “If you want to show leadership against acts of hate against the Jewish community & against any vulnerable population in our state, please join us at Arizona Jews for Justice. We must never be silent!”

Yanklowitz could not be reached for comment.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

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.

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 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!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount