Chicago Loop Synagogue Vandalized With Swastikas and Broken Windows
(JTA) — A downtown Chicago synagogue was vandalized in what police believe is a hate crime.
The front window of the nearly 90-year-old Chicago Loop Synagogue was smashed early on Saturday morning and copies of swastikas were taped to its front doors.
Police were called at 12:30 a.m. on Saturday to the synagogue after construction workers saw the attack in progress, according to reports.
The vandal was caught on surveillance camera, which was released to the public later on Saturday. The vandal is a white male wearing dark clothing and a dark face mask.
Police told local media they are investigating the incident as a hate crime.
“The Chicago Jewish community will not be intimidated by anti-Semitic attacks on a house of worship,” AJC Chicago Director Amy Stoken said in a statement. “Chicagoans must speak together clearly that the hatred behind this destructive behavior will never be accepted.”
Saturday morning Shabbat services went ahead as scheduled.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO