Jews who came to pray at the Haohel synagogue in Bat Yam on Wednesday morning were shocked and appalled to find that it had been defaced for the fourth time in a month.
This time, vandals spray-painted two large crosses on the building, one on either side of the main entrance.
The gabbai, who is tasked with helping to run the synagogue, was one of the first on the scene. “I don’t know how to express what I’m feeling,” gabbai Mickey Moskovich told Arutz Sheva. “It’s like being burned on the inside.”
“This is a synagogue that was established by Holocaust survivors, and some of the survivors who remain still pray here,” he said.
Moskovich was so upset to see the synagogue vandalized for a fourth time that he suffered shock, and a paramedic had to be called to treat him.
He explained that police have attempted to stop the vandalism, yet it continues. “They added another few pages to their material for the investigation, and they say they’re working on intelligence, but it’s been a month and nothing has happened,” he said.
“We aren’t hearing anything from outside political sources,” he added.
Shortly after he spoke to Arutz Sheva, Moskovich and other worshipers decided to hold a special gathering Thursday night to protest the ongoing assault on the synagogue and to call for further police action. Rabbis, politicians and local leaders plan to attend.
Earlier this week vandals sprayed the words “filthy Jews out” on a synagogue in Bat Yam. On the Sabbath, worshipers in Haifa found that a synagogue had been desecrated with swastikas, anti-Semitic graffiti, and drawings indicating “devil worship.”