UPDATE: Salt Lake City Police have identified a person of interest and are asking for the public’s help in identifying them.
SALT LAKE CITY — Visitors to the Chabad Community center Synagogue arrived Sunday to see a swastika carved into their main entrance door.
Surveillance video showed a man using a razor blade to scratch the swastika into the glass.
Rabbi Avremi Zippel tweeted pictures of the vandalism saying, “We will not cower in fear.”
In a brief statement to KSL NewsRadio Zippel said, “Swastikas in 2021 are not something we expect to deal with.”
“A swastika is not a political statement,” Rabbi Zippel told KSL-TV. “A swastika is an image of hate. A swastika represents one thing and one thing only — and that is death to the Jews.”
This act of antisemitic vandalism comes on the weekend after which Israeli forces retaliated to hundreds of rockets that were launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The FBI warned Jewish groups across the country to beware of threats while the conflict continues.
The vandalism was immediately condemned by community leaders, including the mayors of Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County, and by Utah Senator Mitt Romney.
“Those who commit acts of vandalism against Jews or their places of worship in Salt Lake City or anywhere else only disgrace their own souls,” Romney said.
While police do have surveillance video of the vandalism taking place, they have not yet arrested a suspect.
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