A Texas man was arrested on Sunday night on suspicion of carving antisemitic, Nazi symbols into the base of a large menorah in Beverly Hills, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Officers were called around 8:00 p.m. to a report of a person defacing a menorah near Sunset Boulevard and Foothill Road, said the Beverly Hills Police Department.
The suspect, identified on Monday as 47-year-old Dallas resident Eric Brian King, was captured on surveillance video that showed him throwing objects at the menorah, police said.
“The initial investigation revealed that King carved Nazi symbols into the base of the menorah,” police said. “He was charged with felony vandalism and a hate crime.”
Detectives are continuing to look into the case and additional charges are possible, police said.
Rabbi Noah Farkas, president and chief executive of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, said his organization is aware of the incident and is working with Beverly Hills officials and local law enforcement “to ensure that justice is served and future acts of hate can be prevented.”
“It is unfortunate that we as Jews can’t even have a peaceful display of our religion without being targeted in this disturbing wave of recent antisemitism locally and globally,” Farkas said, according to The Los Angeles Times.
“We will not let this act, or any act of hate, deter us from celebrating the wonder of Hanukkah and the joy of being Jewish. We will continue to live with pride and will never allow an incident like this to diminish our spirit.”
In April, antisemitic flyers were discovered in Beverly Hills and Hollywood on the first day of Passover.
Some of the antisemitic flyers accused the Jewish people of controlling the media and the government while others alleged that COVID-19 was a Jewish plot. Another flyer was captioned: “Every single aspect of the Ukraine-Russia war is Jewish.”
A month later, members of a white supremacist group hurled antisemitic abuse at residents of Los Angeles as they drove a truck through that was covered in anti-Jewish messages.