“Palestine” was found scrawled on the side of the Park Avenue Synagogue.
By JNS
The Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City was vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti on Friday, in an incident being investigated by the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force.
“Palestine” was scrawled on the wall of the building located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, under the biblical verse “How great are your tents O Jacob, your dwelling places O Israel” (Numbers 24:5), and directly under the word “Israel.”
Vandal scrawls ‘Palestine’ on wall of NYC’s Park Avenue Synagogue https://t.co/8EufsNUoih pic.twitter.com/6n4EFAWsDp
— New York Post (@nypost) June 15, 2024
No arrests have been made in the incident, which City Councilmember Julie Menin, a former congregant, described in an X post on Friday as a “vile antisemitic act.” Menin continued: “A house of worship is a sanctuary. Defacing it is an attack on all of us.”
Today Park Avenue Synagogue was vandalized. As a former member of this congregation, I am disgusted by this vile antisemitic act. A house of worship is a sanctuary. Defacing it is an attack on all of us.
— Julie Menin (@JulieMenin) June 14, 2024
The synagogue, which is affiliated with the Conservative movement of Judaism and with a membership of more than 1,700 households is one of the largest in the United States, posted to its Instagram account on Friday that its congregants are “disheartened” by the vandalism and are investigating, assuring that “the synagogue building is secure” and wishing everyone Shabbat Shalom.
The synagogue’s Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove said during services on Friday night, as quoted by Israel National News, “It’s actually with a heavy heart that we begin Shabbat services tonight. … The facility is OK, we are all safe, and it is shocking and it is distressing.”
According to Cosgrove, a crowd gathered outside of the historic synagogue, founded in 1882 by German Jews, to show solidarity following the incident.
The number of antisemitic and anti-Israel incidents has risen sharply across New York City since Hamas started the current war with the Jewish state on Oct. 7.
Last week, an anti-Israel group defaced the homes of the Brooklyn Museum’s director and board members and a mob of pro-Hamas protesters chanting “Intifada revolution” rallied outside an exhibit memorializing the hundreds of victims of the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack on the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel.
Also last week, masked agitators on a city subway car demanded to know if there were any “Zionists” on board. The group then warned, “This is your chance to get out,” according to a video circulating on social media.