Screenshot from Twitter. A French synagogue was vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti as well as stickers of Palestinian, Lebanese and French flags on the shul’s entrance.
Here is a picture of the graffiti on the main Shul in Le Havre:
Le #Havre: une synagogue vandalisée par un tag "non aux sionistes" ►►https://t.co/IONl9vtESB pic.twitter.com/fimyiSND0m
— i24NEWS Français (@i24NEWS_FR) July 30, 2018
The graffiti, written in French, translates to: “No to Zionists, No to Israel.”
The National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism (BVNCA) said in a statement that a mailbox at the Shul had bullet holes in it in 2016.
“Anti-Zionist rhetoric targeting Israel that is placed on a synagogue confirms that anti-Zionists are notorious anti-Semites,” the BVNCA said.
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt also denounced the vandalism, tweeting, “Vandalizing synagogues with anti-Zionist or anti-Israel messages is anti-Semitism, plain and simple. They are deliberately targeting French Jews.”
Vandalizing synagogues with anti-Zionist or anti-Israel messages is anti-Semitism, plain and simple. They are deliberately targeting French Jews. https://t.co/f3MI6nYLwg
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) August 1, 2018
Rabbi Dov Lewin, the shul’s rabbi, wrote on Facebook that while he was shocked at the vandalism, “the community remains strong.”
An investigation is still underway, but police believe that the vandalism was committed by a novice given Israel was misspelled as “Isrrael.”
On July 27, Vice President Mike Pence highlighted the rising anti-Semitism in France.
“It is remarkable to think that within the very lifetimes of some French Jews — the same French Jews that were forced by the Nazis to wear identifiable Jewish clothing — that some of those same people are now being warned by their democratic leaders not to wear identifiable Jewish clothing,” Pence said. “These acts of violence and hatred and anti-Semitism must end.”
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