A synagogue in Seattle was vandalized on Sunday, one day before Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Temple De Hirsch Sinai on Capitol Hill was spray painted with a number of phrases and imagery, including “Ireal aas (sic) lied” and a Star of David, “apartheid” along with indecipherable words and a picture of a face with “Im (sic) still here” underneath.
While the words and imagery spray painted Sunday are “hard to parse together,” it reflects anti-Israel messaging and antisemitic attitudes, said Stephen Paolini, associate regional director for the Anti-Defamation League Pacific Northwest office.
The vandalism occurred on a part of the property that was fenced off from the street, said Rabbi Daniel Weiner, which he said shows it “clearly was intended to send a pretty stark message.”
“They went through such a concerted effort to enter the property, a sacred space for the synagogue … to convey this kind of horrific message,” Weiner said.
The temple has contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Seattle Police Department, which is investigating the incident, Weiner said.
The Capitol Hill synagogue was vandalized six years ago with graffiti saying “The Holocaust is fake history.” The ‘S’ characters in the graffiti were dollar signs. Seattle police investigated that incident as a hate crime.
“Regardless of your views of actions of the Israeli government, it’s flatly unacceptable and antisemitic to hold the Jewish community somehow responsible for a government thousands of miles away,” Paolini said.
Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, was established by the Israeli government in the ’50s and is commemorated by Jewish communities internationally.
It’s a moment of deep solace and observation, a time when “the Jewish community seeks to feel most safe,” making the attack all the more painful, Paolini said.
“With every kind of incident like this, the message is that this person would like the Jewish community to not feel safe in Seattle, a message that you don’t belong here,” Paolini said.
With next week marking Israel’s 75th Independence Day, Weiner said the act of vandalism reflects “that there are large and significant forces in our culture and beyond that have a great antipathy for the Jewish people and the political realization of the modern Jewish people’s self determination in the modern state of Israel.”
More than 51% of religion-related hate crimes reported nationwide targeted Judaism in 2021, according to FBI statistics. That was a nearly 20% increase from the year prior.
Last year, Seattle reported 33 incidents of bias or hate crimes based on religion, with 25 of those cases involving anti-Jewish bias. That’s down from 2021, when the city reported 44 incidents of bias or hate crimes based on religion, of which 27 involved anti-Jewish bias.
According to the ADL, antisemitic incidents and crimes have been growing in Washington state in recent years. Last year, the organization recorded 65 incidents, the highest ever for Washington state.
It mirrors a national trend of a dramatic rise in antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault in recent years, ADL officials said. In 2022, ADL tabulated 3,697 antisemitic incidents throughout the United States, a 36% increase over the previous year, and the highest number on record since ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979.
Synagogue leaders have decided to leave the graffiti up for a couple days to raise awareness about antisemitic hate and bias, with a sign posted nearby.
“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,” the sign reads.
Seattle police are asking for the public’s help identifying two people caught on video vandalizing the synagogue. Anyone with information is asked to call the Seattle Police Department’s violent crimes tip line at 206-233-5000.
Staff reporter Lauren Girgis contributed to this story.