‘Never-ending incitement’: Second Reform synagogue vandalized in Israel this month

This article was first published in Haaretz and is reprinted with permission.

A Reform synagogue in Israel was vandalized overnight into Monday in what the congregation described as a hate crime – the second attack this month.

Congregation Darchei Noam in Ramat Hasharon – a northern suburb of Tel Aviv – posted an image late on Monday showing that one of the synagogue’s windows was broken.

“Sadly, [we have been] added to the list of victims of hate crimes. Last night, one of our synagogue’s windows was shattered by a stone. We do not know who committed this heinous act,” the synagogue wrote in an English and Hebrew post on Facebook, calling on the community to attend Shabbat services “so that together we can spread a message of solidarity and hope.”

In another post, the synagogue said that Ramat Hasharon Mayor Yitzhak Rochberger has visited them and expressed his support for the congregation.

Israel Police said it had opened an investigation into the attack, which it described in a statement as “most likely the result of rock-throwing in the middle of the night,” but did not provide any additional information.

Earlier this month, one of Israel’s best-known and longest-standing Reform synagogues – Kol Haneshama in Jerusalem – was vandalized and broken into. The synagogue said a group of teenagers entered the grounds, smashed one of the building’s windows and climbed through it before tearing down the Pride flag and damaging a work of art displayed nearby.

Anna Kislanski, the CEO of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, told Haaretz that “violence against the Reform community in Israel and the antisemitism against the Jewish community in the diaspora are a warning sign.”

Kislanski addressed the vandalism in Ramat Hasharon synagogue and said it is impossible to ignore the broader context of the incident.

“Just last week, the Kol Haneshama synagogue in Jerusalem was vandalized, and during those same days we witnessed a serious antisemitic incident at the Central Synagogue in New York, in which a worshipper and security guard were attacked, and damage was caused to the synagogue,” she said in the statement.

“When a Reform synagogue is attacked in Israel due to its identity, and when a synagogue in the U.S. is attacked on antisemitic grounds, these are expressions of hatred and an attack on the basic sense of security of Jews to live their Judaism openly and freely,” Kislanski explained.

“We will not allow hatred and violence to become routine,” Kislanski said.”

Democrats lawmaker Gilad Kariv, a rabbi and Kislanski’s predecessor at Israel’s Reform movement, also drew a direct line between the incident at the Reform synagogues in Ramat Hasharon and Jerusalem, and a series of “arson attacks on businesses open on Shabbat, harming clergymen and places of worship of other religions, violence against protesters and, of course, the violence in [the West Bank] that has increased during the Sabbaths.”

“We will not be deterred for a second,” Kariv wrote. “In the face of never-ending incitement, we will continue to advance never-ending hope. They will shatter and break; we will fix and build.”