Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

American Flag Desecrated with Anti-Semitic Slurs Dumped at Florida Synagogue

— An American flag was desecrated with anti-Semitic messages and then thrown in front of a synagogue in Tampa, Florida.

Messages on the flag, discovered on a wall in front of Congregation Schaarai Zedek in south Tampa, blamed Jews for media bias and immigration policies, WTSP, the Tampa-area CBS affiliate, reported.

The flag was discovered on Saturday afternoon in front of the more than 100-year-old Reform synagogue, which has a membership of 1,100 families.

“There’s a lot going on in the world and a lot of different opinions and people become frustrated and I think this was a voice of frustration,” the congregation’s rabbi, Richard Birnholz, told WTSP.

Tampa police are investigating the incident. They told local media they are not releasing a photo of the flag or the exact words written on it, in order to help the investigation.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version