A Hollywood synagogue was vandalized Thursday night, the second time this summer.
Los Angeles police are investigating the incidents as possible hate crimes. A Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said officers took a hate crime report at the scene on Friday.
A video captured by the synagogue’s security camera shows two hooded men crossing Melrose Avenue and approaching the entrance of Kahal Ahavas Yisroel on Thursday night. There, one of the men wearing a dark sweatshirt appears to hand his cell phone to the other man, who is wearing a light sweatshirt. The man in the dark sweatshirt begins banging on the windows with his forearm before pulling an unidentifiable blunt instrument from his sleeve and then using the object to smash the windows of the house of worship.
The man wearing the light-colored sweatshirt appears to be videotaping the incident with a cell phone.
Doni Dror, a member of the synagogue's board of directors, spoke to KCAL News on Sunday and said the men broke windows but did not enter; no property was stolen.
He said the synagogue had been vandalized just weeks earlier and believes the incidents are related and motivated by hate.
“I find it hard to imagine these two incidents back to back, so close to our building, it's hard to say it's not,” Dror told KCAL.
A Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson did not provide details about the earlier incident or shed light on the current investigation, beyond confirming that a hate crime report was taken the following day.
Anti-Semitic hate crimes have increased since Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
In the three months following the attack, there was a 36% increase in anti-Semitic incidents across the United States, according to the ADL, an organization founded in 1913 “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to ensure justice and fair treatment for all.” Incidents rose to 3,291 between Oct. 7 last year and Jan. 7, 2024, the group said.
Calls and emails to the synagogue were not returned.
“We strongly condemn these apparent acts of intolerance and the vandalism at a place of worship,” said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Los Angeles. “Anti-Semitism and hate in any form should not be tolerated in our communities. We stand in solidarity with the Jewish community against this unacceptable act.”
