Man Charged in Vandalism of Suburban Chicago Synagogue
An Illinois man has been charged with a hate crime for allegedly vandalizing a synagogue.
John White, of Westmont, Ill., was charged Friday with a hate crime for allegedly vandalizing Congregation Etz Chaim, in Lombard, Ill., a suburb of Chicago.
White, 40, was arrested Oct. 21 and accused of smashing the synagogue’s windows and writing anti-Semitic graffiti on its walls, as well as driving recklessly on its property.
During a search of White’s house following his arrest, police found thousands of rounds of ammunition, a shotgun, a rifle and four handguns.
He was charged Friday with one count of Hate Crime, one count of Criminal Damage to Property, one count of Possession of a Firearm and one count of Institutional Vandalism.
White was ordered held on $5 million full cash bond, DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in a statement.
“The charges against Mr. White are extremely serious,” Berlin said. “Hate crimes have a devastating effect not only on the victims themselves, but on the entire community. DuPage County is built on the strengths of our communities, and an attack on a religious institution is considered an attack against the entire community. Any such attack based on hatred and prejudice will not be tolerated in DuPage County and will be met with the full force of the law.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO