Vandals Strike in East Valley : 3 Temples, Meat Shop Are Latest Victims of Anti-Semitic Attacks

Four incidents of anti-Semitic vandalism, including $4,000 in damage to stained-glass windows at a North Hollywood synagogue, were reported in the East Valley this week. Vandals threw a cinder block through the stained glass Tuesday night or Wednesday morning at the Temple Beth Hillel on Riverside Drive, Los Angeles Police Detective Taky Tzimeas said. About the same time, a large rock was thrown through a glass door at Shaarey Zedek Congregation, causing about $400 in damage to that temple, Tzimeas said. An outdoor bulletin board also was damaged.

At a third temple, Chabad of North Hollywood, vandals apparently shot BB pellets through the glass of an outdoor bulletin board during the same period, said Aaron Abend, the rabbi at the temple.

A day earlier at Roz Kosher Meats in Sherman Oaks, someone hurled a rock through the plate glass window, which had been painted with the Star of David, said the shop’s owner, Isaac Roz.

The kosher butcher shop is on Riverside Drive about six blocks from Temple Beth Hillel, and the Chabad temple is about two blocks from Shaarey Zedek on Chandler Boulevard.

Detectives were focusing on the Temple Beth Hillel and Shaarey Zedek incidents, but no leads have developed yet, Tzimeas said.

“Anybody and everybody could be a suspect,” the detective said. “I don’t know if it’s kids or not. I don’t know if it’s a prank or if it’s serious . . . we’re really concerned about these.”

Last month in the West Valley, two synagogues and a community center under construction were sprayed with anti-Semitic graffiti. Investigators have concluded those incidents were not related and they have no suspects, Detective Fred Duitsman said.

“I feel they’re all kids,” Duitsman said.

About 20 incidents of anti-Semitic vandalism have occurred in the Valley since the beginning of the year, said Jonathan Bernstein, assistant director of the Los Angeles office of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.

Since the West Valley vandalism cases, the ADL has been advising the 35 or so Jewish temples in the Valley that “it should be cleaned up as quickly and quietly as possible,” Bernstein said.

The temples also have been advised to “be careful in talking to the press,” he said. “The objective is not to give the person a reward for his actions.”

Anti-Semitic incidents have been on a downward trend since 1981, Bernstein said. Nationwide last year, the ADL catalogued 594 anti-Semitic incidents, mostly vandalism, compared to 638 in 1985, he said. In California, 62 such incidents were reported last year compared to 85 in 1985, according to the ADL.