A large menorah on display outside a California amphitheater was torn down and tossed into a lake Wednesday morning by vandals who left threatening antisemitic graffiti on the sidewalk in its place.
The menorah, which was placed at the Lake Merritt Amphitheater in Oakland, was found vandalized on the sixth day of Hanukkah, officials said.
“I was scared,” Rabbi Dovid Labkowski, of the Chabad Center of Oakland, which prepared the outdoor display, told The Oaklandside.
“It makes me angry that this would happen in Oakland, a place that has so much diversity. It is a place where we want to live together in peace,” added Labkowski.
Oakland Public Works workers worked Wednesday morning pulling metal menorah pieces from the lake and scrubbing graffiti left on the sidewalk where the menorah had been erected.
A large menorah was torn up and thrown into a California lake. MediaNews Group via Getty Images
A graffiti pictures shared online by watchdog group StopAntisemitism showed threatening graffiti that included “your org is dying,” “we’ll find you” and “you’re on f****** a****** alert.”
According to the group, “Free Palestine” was also spray-painted in the same area.
The Oakland Police Department reports that the vandalism occurred around 1:30 a.m. and is being investigated as a hate crime.
Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime. MediaNews Group via Getty Images
The Chabad Center has provided a menorah in Lake Merritt for the past 18 years in celebration of Hanukkah.
This year’s official lighting was attended by more than 140 people, including Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, who condemned the act of hate as “not just an attack on Oakland’s Jewish community but our entire city and our shared values.”
The synagogue told its members about the incident and offered some words of encouragement, saying, “Our enemies show incredible hatred, but we are stronger than that.”
The area where the menorah was defaced with threatening and antisemitic graffiti, officials said. MediaNews Group via Getty Images
The Arab Resource and Organizing Center, or AROC, which supports Muslim and Arab communities in the Bay Area, as well share a statement said its members were “deeply saddened and disappointed to learn of the recent vandalism at Lake Merritt in Oakland.”
The synagogue has launched a campaign to rebuild the menorah in Lake Merritt and place others around Oakland.
The vandalism is not the first antisemitic incident to hit Oakland since Hamas launched its attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
Three baristas at Farley’s East, an Oakland coffee shop, were fired after they were filmed gleefully blocking a Jewish woman from entering a restroom covered in antisemitic graffiti, telling her to “Free Palestine” and accusing her of wanting to use the facility because “Israel likes to take private property and saying it belongs to them.”
The workers, who claim the owners knew about the graffiti for months and were made scapegoats, insist they are against antisemitism and did not deny the woman entry because she is Jewish.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
