Vandals Strike Again at Jewish Leader’s Home

Vandals attacked the Lomita home of an Orthodox Jewish leader Friday, spray-painting a swastika and the slogan “white power” on it.

Dr. Shlomo Elspas, the executive governor of Chabad of South Bay, said his house has been vandalized at least nine times since he moved in last October. Windows have been broken and graffiti sprayed on a backyard wall.

Elspas said he has no idea if the attacks are connected. The possibility that anti-Semitic groups may be targeting him has led him to arm himself and take shooting lessons, he said.

“I’ve had it,” Elspas said. “I’m fed up. . . . It makes my trigger finger itch. I’m not going to shoot to wound. I’m going to shoot to kill. Sadly, this is what it has come to.”

Elspas, an anesthesiologist who works at several South Bay hospitals, said he doubted any connection between the vandalism and the Persian Gulf War. “I think it’s illogical, but then what’s logical about this?” he said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jim Sully said the department has increased patrols around Elspas’ home. Detectives have no suspects or motive in the case, he said.

Elspas said he has been stunned by the attacks because he has lived in the neighborhood for almost five years without being subjected to vandalism. Nor has the Chabad of South Bay synagogue, also in Lomita, been vandalized.

Elspas’ troubles began when he and his wife moved into their newly built house two blocks from where they had lived.

Shortly before moving in, they found two bullet holes through a window. Over the next month, vandals repeatedly spray-painted “Lomita” and “Harbor City” on a garden wall, apparent references to two local youth gangs.

Someone threw a rock through the home’s 20-foot-high front window in late December. Last month, Elspas said, he confronted two youths who had parked in his driveway. They rammed his car and sped away, he said.

“We’ve had almost weekly problems,” he said. “I’m kind of sorry now that I put my dream house here.”