2 Synagogues Vandalized on the Eve of Hanukkah : Hate crimes: Biblical citations and other slurs are spray-painted on the temples in Thousand Oaks. Jewish and non-Jewish religious leaders react angrily.

Vandals on the eve of Hanukkah desecrated two temples in Thousand Oaks with slurs from the New Testament of the Bible characterizing them as synagogues of Satan.

The slurs were sandblasted off the buildings on Wednesday, but the message was still clear in the minds of officials at Temple Etz Chaim and Temple Adat Elohim.

“There are all kinds of nuts and kooks,” said Rabbi Shimon Paskow of Temple Etz Chaim. The vandal “decided we were Satan’s synagogue. . . . If I catch the person, I’ll prosecute to the full extent that I can.”

Buildings at both sites were spray-painted early Tuesday morning with identical biblical citations from the New Testament and a Jewish star emblazoned with the words “The Anti-Christ’s Symbol.”

On one wall of Temple Etz Chaim, vandals also sprayed the message “Jews are Satan’s Chosen” in black letters nearly two feet tall on the wall of a temple sanctuary.

Vandals have attacked the two Jewish temples before. More than two years ago, swastikas were painted on Temple Etz Chaim’s school building. About eight years ago, Temple Adat Elohim was defaced with swastikas and anti-Semitic slurs, Rabbi Alan Greenbaum said.

The Sheriff’s Department has referred the case to detectives for investigation, Sgt. Jim Sliester said.

The spray-paintings were the latest in a spate of hate crimes aimed at religious and ethnic minorities in Ventura County.

Last week, vandals spray-painted the Oxnard home of Ventura County NAACP President John Hatcher. In October, two swastikas were scratched on the door of the Jewish Federation Council in Thousand Oaks.

And last month, someone left a device on Paskow’s doorstop rigged with two candles and clay. He said the object was intended to look like a bomb.

The biblical quotations in Tuesday’s vandalism were different from the swastikas and other anti-Semitic slurs that they have seen on their temples before, Jewish leaders said. The quotations come from the Book of Revelations, and one refers to the “blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.”

Bill Bergman, executive director of Temple Etz Chaim, said vandals chose a poorly lighted area away from the street lamps and from well-traveled Janss Road. Private patrols hired by the synagogue said they did not notice anything unusual on the evening of the attack, Bergman said.

A representative of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, a watchdog organization that keeps track of crimes directed against Jews, said she suspects that the vandals are adults.

“They were people who were very familiar with the Bible, and knew where those references were,” said Janet Himler, associate director for the ADL in Santa Monica.

The vandalism did not detract from traditional Hanukkah celebrations at the two temples. About 800 people attended the lighting of the menorah at Temple Etz Chaim Tuesday night, Paskow said. And on Wednesday, children attended another Hanukkah party. Celebrations will continue until the last day of Hanukkah next Tuesday.

Paskow said he would not let the incident ruin the holiest holidays of the year.

“We’re just more determined than ever to carry on,” he said.

The two Thousand Oaks synagogues represent the largest Jewish congregations in the county. Combined with the Temple Beth Torah in Ventura, there are about 20,000 members of the Jewish community in the county.

The attack angered other religious leaders and Jewish leaders outside of the Thousand Oaks community.

Terry Bushart, pastor of the United Methodist Church located next to Temple Etz Chaim, said vandalism of the synagogues “is an affront to all religions.”

Members of the Methodist congregation share classroom space and celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday by having dinner with the temple, Bushart said.

“About once a year it seems like this happens,” he said. “It’s intolerable.”

Rabbi Gary Johnson, of the Temple Beth Haverim of Agoura Hills in Los Angeles County, said there has been a rash of crimes directed against Jews on what is supposed to be a joyful holiday. Vandals early Monday morning robbed a Jewish family in Agoura Hills of its Hanukkah display, including a three-foot-tall dreidel, a six-foot-tall menorah and lights.

“They just took the whole thing,” Johnson said.