Officials in New Hampshire are investigating after a synagogue and shops in Portsmouth were defaced with swastikas allegedly spray-painted by a man caught on video.
The vandalism in downtown Portsmouth took place early Tuesday morning, according to Forbes.
Police in the city and the New Hampshire Department of Justice Civil Rights Unit have opened an investigation into the incident. At least 10 swastikas and other extremist messages were found spray painted in red on a synagogue and other local businesses, authorities said. The synagogue was identified as Conservative congregation Temple Israel by NH Public Radio.
The incident took place at approximately 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office said in a statement denouncing the graffiti.
The statement referred to the vandalism as “hateful and threatening criminal activity” that it said was “motivated by racial or religious intolerance.”
New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (R-NH) condemned the incident in a Twitter post, in which he said he had been in contact with Attorney General John Formella.
“State, local, and federal authorities will work closely in investigating this matter. Hatred, bigotry, and antisemitism will not be tolerated in New Hampshire,” he wrote.
Formella also decried the incident in a statement: "This type of hateful and threatening criminal activity, motivated by racial or religious intolerance, particularly at places of worship, has no place in New Hampshire and will not be tolerated."
Police were examining surveillance camera footage that showed a suspect in a red Maine sweatshirt and a facemark spray-painting the graffiti, WMUR reported.
"It's very disturbing, and it's very reminiscent of things that we saw in Nazi Germany prior to the Holocaust," said Temple Israel’s spiritual leader Kaya Stern-Kaufman.
She told the news outlet that Temple Israel is the only synagogue in the Seacoast Region of the state and is home to 300 families.
"It's a larger issue than antisemitism, but certainly, it's a big part of it," Stern-Kaufman said.
A similar incident occurred in October 2022 in the city of Laconia, New Hampshire in which multiple areas of the city were defaced with swastikas by antisemitic vandals the Friday before Rosh Hashanah and then a second time later in the week.