Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Mexican Synagogue Vandalized Twice With ‘Dogs’ Graffiti Amid UNESCO Vote Drama

— Vandals broke glass windows, smashed furniture, and painted graffiti on the walls of Mexico City’s Agudas Ajim synagogue in two separate attacks.

The attackers used red paint simulating blood to write the word “perros,” which means dogs, and the letter “A” for anarchy, in last week’s incidents.

The vandalism occurred after local Jewish leaders launched a public campaign to urge government officials not to vote in favor of a UNESCO committee proposal that denies Jewish ties to Jerusalem holy sites.

Mexico voted in favor of the resolution and the fight was apparently lost. However, on October 17, the country changed its vote to abstention and fired its Jewish ambassador to UNESCO, Andre Roemer, for protesting against the initial vote, according to a statement.

An unnamed organized group is believed to have perpetrated the synagogue attacks, according to local Jewish security officials who kept the security alert during the Sukkot festivities high in the Latin American nation, reported Iton Gadol news service.

Mexico is home to some 50,000 Jews, making it Latin America’s third largest Jewish population after Argentina and Brazil.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

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.

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. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.