Vile Jew-Hatred at Ocean Beach this weekend

Palestinians and their Western enablers never hesitate to sacrifice their own communities at the altar of  Palestinianism,  and its ugly little brother, Jew-hate.

This weekend, vile graffiti appeared at San Francisco's Ocean Beach,  near the junction of the Great Highway and Rivera.

Dozens of people called it in to San Francisco 311 and Public Works took swift action painting over the threatening slurs.

 

The graffiti has been reported to the ADL as well and will be logged as a hate crime.   Always remember- if you see something, say something.   Or better yet, do something.

Beverly Hills Synagogue vandalized overnight

The Nessah Synagogue in Beverly Hills , home to the largest Persian, Orthodox, Sephardic community in California was vandalized last night. Windows and doors were broken and prayer books were destroyed.

According to early reports on social media 9 Torah scrolls were damaged, but this later proved erroneous.

The area is cordoned off and is being treated as a crime scene.

Update:
Statement from the Police follows:

Anyone who has information about the vandalism of the Nessah synagogue or the identity of the suspect is encouraged to call the Beverly Hills Police Department at (310) 285-2125 or submit an anonymous tip by texting "BEVHILLSPD" followed by the tip information to 888777.

In the wake of Pittsburgh, 2 California Synagogues are vandalized

On the heels of the slaughter at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, a community already on edge and in mourning is facing a different kind of threat, as two California synagogues were vandalized this week.

Congregation Beth Jacob in Irvine was defaced with antisemitic graffiti.

Irvine California Synagogue vandalized

Temple Beth Israel  in Fresno was also vandalized.

Fresno Synagogue Vandalized

Police are treating both incidents as hate crimes.

Anti-Zionism meets anti-Semitism, as a sukkah is vandalized in New York City

This week in Carl Schurz Park on the Upper East Side of New York City,  a community sukkah was vandalized, spray painted with the words  "Free Gaza".

The structure had been erected by Chabad to commemorate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

According to Chabad:

In a neighborhood where an apartment with a balcony or private rooftop large enough to host a family sukkah costs about $4 million, public sukkahs are a must for just about anyone who wants to spend time and eat in a sukkah.  

Even in New York City, Sukkahs in public area are at risk.  

When anti-Israel graffitti vandalizes a Jewish religious structure, it is pure anti-Semitism.

True to Chabad tradition, the grafitti was painted over with messages of peace and unity.

The New York City Police Department  is investigating the graffiti as a "possible"  bias incident.

Emory University Jewish Fraternity Vandalized With Swastikas

The Emory University chapter of the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi  in Atlanta was vandalized with swastikas this weekend

Via Business Insider:

An Emory spokesperson provided Business Insider with the following statement on the swastikas and other graffiti found outside AEPi this weekend:

The Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity house at Emory University was the target of crude, offensive graffiti, including swastikas, early Sunday morning, Oct. 5. AEPi is an historically Jewish fraternity and the incident occurred shortly after the end of Yom Kippur on Saturday, one of the Jewish highest holidays.

This abhorrent act will not be tolerated and does not reflect the values of the Emory University community.

Emory Police officers are actively investigating the incident and have increased patrols to the area. Campus Life officials are meeting with student leaders to provide support and determine next steps for response.

The following statement was provided to Business Insider on behalf of the Emory AEPi brotherhood:

We are outraged at the insensitive display of prejudice that occurred at the Alpha Epsilon Pi house at Emory University. We are working alongside Emory to ensure that intolerable acts of hate, such as this, will never occur again. We are thankful for the community around us that has shown tremendous support throughout this time.

Emory president James Wagner sent the following email to the Emory community late Sunday night:

To the Emory Community:
It saddens me to report that the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house, an historically Jewish fraternity here at Emory, was the target of crude, offensive graffiti, including swastikas, early Sunday morning, October 5, shortly after the end of the observance of Yom Kippur.
On behalf of our community, I denounce this abhorrent act. It is an offense against a Jewish fraternity and the Jewish members of our community, and it is a repugnant, flagrant emblem of anti-Semitism. It is also an offense against the entire university. Among the many pernicious things the swastika symbolizes, in the last century it represented the most egregious and determined undermining of intellectual freedom and truth-seeking. In short, its appearance on our campus is an attack against everything for which Emory stands.
Emory University will not tolerate such acts. Instead we must together pledge Emory University’s continuing commitment to raise awareness and prevent all forms of violence and discrimination; to foster openness and diversity of thought, experience, spirituality, and culture; and to seek positive transformation in our community and the world. We all have a responsibility to uphold the principles we hold dear as an academic community, and to create a community that is inclusive, open, respectful, and welcoming to all.
Emory Police officers are actively investigating the incident and have increased patrols to the area. If you have any information about the individuals who may have perpetrated these acts, please contact the Emory Police at 404-727-6111.
Sincerely,
Jim Wagner
President

 This is just another incident in a pattern of antisemitic attacks on Jewish students  throughout the country.  To learn more about what our students are facing, visit the AMCHA initiative website. AMCHA is dedicated to investigating, documenting, educating about, and combating antisemitism at institutions of higher education in America.

 The Jewish students of AEPi have experienced antisemitism on their host campuses before:

Billboard Wars, Vancouver: Prologue

We've seen over time how anti-Israel groups are determined to bring the wars of the Middle East into our public transit system and how nonprofit Israel Advocacy group StandWithUs is determined to counter them.   

In Vancouver, Canada there may have been an interim step.  The notoriously inaccurate 4 part Maps of Disappearing Palestine went up and came down rather unexpectedly, over and over again.  According to a press release circulated by anti-Israel activists Marty Roth and Charlotte Kates of the Palestine Awareness Coalition,  the lying sacks of crap  posters went AWOL on three separate occasions.

Oops.

VANCOUVER, October 10, 2013 – The “Disappearing Palestine” wall mural displayed at a Canada Line SkyTrain station was stolen by vandals for the third time overnight on October 9, shortly after it was replaced following two earlier thefts. The ad, part of a campaign by the Palestine Awareness Coalition, has been running since August 27.

 The Skytrain ad was vandalized previously on the weekends of September 21 and October 5, when it was also stolen from the station by unknown vandals who appear to have scraped the ad from the walls.

 The ad has been re-posted again. The Coalition is not aware of any suspects being identified in the repeated thefts.

In the Bay Area, we've seen pro-Israel material regularly vandalized. 

Vandalized Berkeley Bus Shelter poster

Vandalized Berkeley Bus Shelter poster

But rather than emulate the fetid tactics of our opposition,  pro-Israel activists should consider taking positive steps. Consider, for example contributing to the work of BlueStar or StandWithUs, both excellent organizations that work hard to share Israel's side of the story.

Afikomen Judaica Vandalized

Afikomen Judaica in Berkeley is a beloved community institution.  Since 1991,  we've gone there to chose our children's bat and bar mitvah invitations. We've picked out our ketubbot- and rented our chuppahs there.    Its where you can find gorgeous  havdalah candles from Safed and fair trade organic Hanukah gelt.

Tonight someone smashed the window of Afikomen.

From Rabbi Menachem Creditor of Netivot Shalom:

"Thank God, everyone is fine, and damage was minimal. But this store is our Jewish community's treasure, and an attack on it is an attack on us all, Jewish and not. Please make an effort to pay a special visit to Afikomen this week, spending some extra time and money as a statement of support and solidarity with Chaim, Nell, and the important work they do convening our community and exposing us all to new and exciting Jewish learning, books, music, art, and more."

In 2010, two Jewish businesses in Oakland were also attacked-  Holy Land Restaurant and the Grand Bakery  both had their windows smashed. Amba , a kosher restaurant in Montclair has been subject to harassment and threats recently as well. .  While its certainly too soon to assume that this was a hate crime, lets heed Rabbi Creditor and pay the store a visit-  its just about time to do your Hannukah shopping anyway.  As the days grow darker and darker, lets remember that we have it within our power to increase the light in the world. Lets start now.

Price Tag attacks. A Tale of Two Cities.

In Israel, they are called "price tag" attacks.

From Patrick Martin of the Globe and mail:

Amidst a series of audacious attacks carried out apparently by young Israeli settlers this week, one of the extremists’ targets stood out. It was a site I’d never heard of right in the centre of the city: The Nebi Akasha mosque, built more than 800 years ago.
It’s situated, I would learn, where three ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhoods converge, on a small one-way street named Prague.
The mosque itself is a simple single-storey stone building, with most of its barred windows bricked up – no longer active as a place of worship since 1948. Attached is a modest, attractive stone minaret that stands about two and a half storeys high.
Across a courtyard dominated by a playground filled with children on swings and climbers sits an equally old domed mausoleum. Inside this stone structure are three graves, believed to be those of some of Saladin’s commanders who perished in the taking of Jerusalem in 1187.
The mosque is named for Akasha Bin Mohsin, a 10th century Muslim, whose tomb was on the site when the stone buildings were constructed.
It was to this unused historic structure that the young extremists came before dawn on Wednesday. They threw a gas bomb through a small opening of one of the bricked up windows, scorching the stone all around the window and doing minimal damage inside.
They spray-painted on the outside stone walls and on the green metal doors things written in Hebrew such as “Mohamed is dead,” “Mohamed is a pig,” and “price tag,” a reference to the costs that Muslim and other Arab institutions will pay if Israel moves to dismantle any Jewish settlements or outposts in the West Bank.

Reports of the vandalism attack spread throughout the country and the act was widely condemned. But words are one thing. Actions are another. Two young men, Avi Mayer and Arie Hasit showed up. They painted over the graffiti and scrubbed smoke off the exterior walls.

“What happened here is unconscionable, and I don’t think it is representative of Israeli society, this neighborhood or Jerusalem,” said Avi Mayer, a Jerusalemite who works for the Jewish Agency. I found the entire incident deplorable and felt I had to try and right this wrong..."

Thank you, Avi and Arie. May you go from strength to strength, and continue to be a source of light to all.

In Berkeley, there appears to have been a local version of a price tag attack. The fence surrounding Michael Lerner's home in the Berkeley Hills has been vandalized again.

From JTA:

The northern California home of Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of the progressive Tikkun magazine, was vandalized for the fourth time in the last year.
In an e-mail sent to Tikkun supporters, Lerner said that on Tuesday evening, two black-hooded men pasted signs on the outside of his house and garage saying that "Palestine is an Arab fantasy." ...
"It seems obvious to me that the attack, while responding to the NPR interview with me this morning, is part of the same attempt to terrorize me and my family as the past three assaults," Lerner wrote in his e-mail. "As the police made clear to us the last time, the goal is not to destroy property as much as to remind us that they know where we live, and that we are not safe."
People. This type of childish hate-driven vandalism is wrong in Israel. And its also wrong in Berkeley. Your actions do nothing to help our people or to further our cause. Remember the words of our sage Hillel "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary".

Persian Pastries are Much Cooler Than Hate and Vandalism

A friend e-mailed to let me know that Zand's on Solano Avenue had a BDS sign, saying "End Apartheid, Boycott Israeli Goods" in the window, and my first reaction was "Aw, heck, say it ain't so!"

Luckily, it wasn't so.

Zand's is on Solano Avenue in Albany. They sell delicious Persian baked goods, and for a little store, a stunning variety of Middle Eastern food products, including many Israeli goods. I cherish them as a local source of red lentils for soup, and also for introducing me to the amazing Mashti Malone ice cream. So when I heard that they were apparently signing on to the vicious, bigoted and irrational boycott of Israeli goods, I was rather alarmed. This might mean I never had any Mashti Malone ice cream again.

However, a quick investigation revealed that the sign was not inside the window, but a sticker OUTSIDE the window, where it had been slapped on over the remains of the last several stickers that had been removed by the proprietor. The owners, Persian Muslims, plan to continue to stock great Middle Eastern food from everywhere in the region, despite petty vandalism and petty hate.

Now, this is the best-tasting mitzvah you will ever do--if you're anywhere nearby, go to Zand's, tell them how much you appreciate their stocking Israeli goods, and buy some pistachio baklava and a pint of Mashti Malone's rosewater sorbet. There. Didn't that feel good?

Bay Area Peace Activists Get Results

This is the result of San Francisco Bay Area pro-peace activism. Much earlier today, the windows of the Israeli Consulate at 456 Montgomery Street in San Francisco were damaged when bricks were thrown. A brave left-wing soul, no doubt, did the deed.