(Image: Temple De Hirsch Sinai)
Seattle Police say they have video evidence showing the suspects in a fresh round of vandalism targeting Temple De Hirsch Sinai.
The house of worship again saw its campus between E Pike and Union above Madison vandalized with spray-painted graffiti in what temple officials called “an antisemitic and anti-Israel attack.” The vandals struck Sunday night as communities prepared to mark Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The vandalism follows a similar incident six years ago that was part of a flurry of Trump-echoing vandalism around Capitol Hill and the Central District following the 2016 election.
In 2017, a fast-acting neighbor took action to cover the graffiti on the temple’s campus before the congregation opted to expose the messages.
As they chose in 2017, temple leaders have again decided to leave the new vandalism in place.
“Temple De Hirsch Sinai is aware of the graffiti,” a sign posted at the site reads. “We have chosen to keep it visible as a reminder of the hate that persists and the immense work that is left to be done.”
SPD, meanwhile, is investigating the bias crime and says it has collected “video footage of the suspects.” No arrests have been announced.
UPDATE: SPD has posted the video and is asking for help in identifying the suspects:
Seattle Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying two suspects who vandalized a Jewish synagogue in the Central District Sunday night. Police were called to the 1500 block of E Pike Street Monday morning around 10:00 a.m. after employees arrived and found an exterior wall spray painted with hateful, anti-Semitic messaging and images. Officers collected evidence from the scene. SPD Detectives with the Bias Crime Unit will continue to lead the investigation in this case. If anyone has information, please call the SPD Violent Crimes Tip Line at (206) 233-5000.
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Thank you for this article. How about sharing the video and letting the public see it, and help find the perpetrators. Then arrest, name them, and try them for both vandalism and hate crime.
Perhaps down the road we could see some restorative justice. And props to Temple de Hirsch for letting the graffiti remain and be seen by the community.
Anti semitic acts are up by 36% in 2022 according to the anti-defamation league. Hate against Jews is timeless and per many in our community and elsewhere, perfectly acceptable.
On a related note, how about some follow up on that prolific tagger arrested a couple months back. We rarely get follow up what happens to those who are caught destroying our city.
Apartheid in Israel is a problem that is unrelated to anti-semitism. The graffiti is bad an inexcusable but let’s not pretend Israel is good either.
Oh Please!! Two points. The location of this was a Synagogue, and the target Jews. Jews are not Israel and many Jews, including hundreds of thousands of Israelis take issue with actions of their government, including how to address the conflict with Palestinians. Trying to justify or minimize this act on the basis of Israel is one more anti-Semitic meme and excuse, like the banker conspiracy stuff of years past and present.
A more nuanced fact is that it is beyond curious and interesting that the same people who seem obsessed with the shortcomings of this tiny country seem to have a convenient amnesia and moral vacuum about the surrounding countries that conduct genocide on their people (Syria is the latest. Read about their recent execution of a US born, Arab heritage woman aid worker), who have zero democracy (most of the neighbors), where gay sex is illegal (Israel has a vibrant gay community), whose economies are either in disarray or they extract oil, but do nothing particularly creative or innovative, who disenfranchise women (Saudi Arabia among others), and the list goes on.
Also absent in so many on the left is any awareness of the more than 800,000 jews who were ejected from the surrounding Arab countries, many seeking safety in Israel, and where certainly there are no Jewish communities thriving, being part of government (Israel has many Arab citizens, I don’t know how many but likely more than a million), and a seeming inability to allow this country to exist let alone thrive without anguish by so many who totally ignore the reality of geopolitics and the reality of other nations that have formed in lands that others may have lived on. I assume you are not native American but have zero interest or enthusiasm towards moving to wherever your ancestors are from, if you were still welcome there?
So Israel being held to different standards, and linking Jews to geopolitics of the region is anti-Semitism unless those taking up the cause walk the talk on the grievous oppression that marks our current world.
Take a trip there some time, You’d learn something to be sure.
This person’s comment didn’t mention Israel. I don’t get that if somebody scrawled things on a mosque nobody would be saying “okay this is wrong but let’s not pretend that Pakistan isn’t horrible”. Anti-Semitism is the only kind of bigotry were progressives come out of the woodwork and start doing “yes but….”. They don’t do this to any other minority.
The comment you’re replying to didn’t mention Israel at all. It’s disappointing that it’s so hard for some people to condemn hatred of Jews without inserting their personal politics and conditions into the conversation.
Have you been to Israel? Do you have first hand experience? I go frequently and can tell you that all citizens have guaranteed equality. Compared to the other countries in the middle east, Israel is light years ahead in terms of democracy and fairness.
So… when someone holds a religious organization in one country for the acts of government officials in an entirely different country halfway around the world that isn’t making a political statement, that is threatening the people who attend that religious organization or somehow imagining that those people have some control or influence over the officials. See: https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working-definition-antisemitism
And respectfully, you saying this and then adding but cancels out what you’re saying. I encourage you to please be more considerate because it’s ignorant comments like these that will hurt us even more.
I hope all these taggers choke on paint fumes and get arrested. Nobody cares about your scribbles and racist images are despicable.
I’m so glad that these people are closer to getting caught. They. Do. Not. Deserve. This. Isreal is flawed, but so is everything, and we are letting these terrible people win by bickering over this. These people painted the star of David when and used it as ignorant. And respectfully, if anybody even considers saying one hateful thing on this after everything that’s happened, then you have your own problems and it’s not worth causing more pain.
The link doesn’t work
These two jokers are responsible for a string of graffiti left up and down Union last weekend, not just at one location. Many businesses and homes were defaced with this exact style handwriting and imagery. There’s tagging left on a soon-to-be business at 2600 E Union just days after the building was repainted. There’s also tagging all over the front and sides of the Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church at 2651 E Union, and elsewhere up and down the street. Really sad that these two had so much time on their hands to do this to so many walls/spots in one night.
Interestingly, there was also a number of BLM and Pride flags ripped down from homes. Mine included. My doorbell cam recorded 2 young guys that look a lot like these same two, in fact. Hard to know for certain but they look like these two dopes.
I’m glad you mentioned this as nobody else has. I immediately noticed the writing was the same. Seems like the scum are equal opportunity in their hatred and vandalism.
I also recognize the writing as similar between the various buildings tagged along Union Street. If you have the doorbell camera footage, I hope you are calling in a tip about them. May help establish a direction of travel that could lead to where they came or went based on timestamps from the Temple and your doorbell camera.