Couple’s Home, Car Scarred by Anti-Semitic Graffiti : Westlake Village: Investigators are treating the vandalism as a hate crime. No motive has been established.

Anti-Semitic graffiti painted on a Westlake Village house and car early Friday were being investigated as a hate crime by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, but deputies and the victims said they have not been able to pinpoint a motive for the attack.

Sheri Lesser said she and her husband, Lawrence, were startled by a loud banging noise outside their house on Belham Court about 12:15 a.m. They looked around but did not see anything. She said that less than an hour later they heard two more bangs outside, then someone shouted, “Die Jew.” The Lessers are Jewish.

The couple, who were alone in the house, went outside and found numerous swastikas painted on their house, driveway, front gate and car. The words “Die Jew” were painted on a wall.

“It was shocking,” Lesser said. “We called the sheriff. My husband got his gun out and we stayed in the garage until the deputies came.”

Sgt. Mike Santander estimated the damage at $5,500. He said there have been no similar incidents in the neighborhood near Westlake Village Golf Course and that investigators had not identified any suspects or motives.

“They haven’t had any problem there in the past,” Santander said. “We haven’t had any trouble in that area, either.”

The vandalism came one night after the Lessers encountered a car slowly driving without lights in their neighborhood. When the couple drove up to the car, someone inside it shined a flashlight on them and the car then sped away. However, Santander said there was no clear connection between the incident and the vandalism.

The vandalized car was parked across the street from the Lessers’ house, in front of a neighbor’s home, said Sheri Lesser.

“It had to have been someone who knew the car was ours,” she said. “It had to be someone who has seen us in the car or who knows us. Why would they do this? There is no reason for it. It is the work of a sick, demented mind.”

The Lessers, who operate a video production company, have lived in the house for 15 years. A Westlake Village cleaning crew sandblasted the graffiti off the pavement and walls of the house Friday afternoon. The Lessers had their car towed to a dealer to be repainted.

Sheri Lesser said she and her husband have no plans to move or make any changes in their lifestyle.

“They are not going to intimidate us,” she said. “I am not scared of them and I am not leaving.”

Jerry Shapiro, associate director of the Los Angeles office of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, examined the vandalism Friday afternoon and said the Jewish watchdog group that monitors hate crimes would conduct its own investigation of the incident and provide security and counseling for the Lessers.

“We regard this as a cowardly, criminal act,” Shapiro said.

Last year, the league announced plans to open an office in the west San Fernando Valley because of its large Jewish community and apparent increase in anti-Semitic acts in the area. Shapiro said the office should be opened by the end of this year.

The county Commission on Human Relations released a study earlier this year showing that hate crimes have steadily increased during the past seven years. About one-third of the 672 reported in the county during 1991 took place in the Valley. According to the commission report, Jews are the most frequent target of crimes motivated by religious hatred.