Anti-Israel vandals have targeted another Jewish landmark in New York City, this time carving “Palestine” into one of Manhattan’s largest synagogues.
According to the New York Police Department, the graffiti was discovered around noon Friday on the exterior wall of the Park Avenue Synagogue.
The photo shows the word “Palestine” graffitied underneath the Bible verse, “How large is your tents, O Jacob, how great is your dwelling place, O Israel.”
The vandals did not erase the word Israel, but wrote Palestine underneath it in green marker.
Officials said police were called and took photos of the graffiti as evidence before it was removed.
The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Unit is investigating, but no arrests have been made.
“Today Park Avenue Synagogue was vandalized. As a former member of this congregation, I am disgusted by this despicable act of anti-Semitic behavior. Our house of worship is a sacred space. To desecrate it is an attack on all of us,” said City Council Member Julie Mennin. I wrote it to X.
The popular Conservative synagogue has been particularly outspoken amid Israel’s war with Hamas, with its rabbi, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, even traveling in December to “bear witness” to one of the kibbutzim destroyed in the October 7 attack.
Second Rabbi Douglas Emhoff visited the congregation in May to discuss “Jewish pride and the steps he has taken to combat the rise of anti-Semitism,” the rabbi said. He said on Instagram.
The vandalism at the Park Avenue Synagogue came just days after protesters smeared red paint on several buildings across the city, including the Palestine Mission, a luxury building on the Upper East Side and the Jewish director and several board members of the Brooklyn Museum.
On Wednesday, three disguised men, some of whom had been arrested multiple times over the past two months, stood outside the Jewish state’s consulate and burned two American flags and an Israeli flag.
