Temple Turns Hate Crime Into a Lesson

Members of a synagogue in Meiners Oaks are hoping to turn a crime of intolerance into a symbol of community cooperation Friday by inviting residents and local clergy to help paint over a swastika found on the temple’s front door.

A group of children arriving for school found the large, red Nazi symbol splattered across the door of Temple K’Hilat Ha’Aloneem on Sunday morning.

The children, ages 5 to 9, had come to learn how to bake Jewish pastries for the religious holiday Purim, but left with a much larger lesson, said David Howard, education chairman of the temple on El Roblar Drive.

“The kids are very young, and it is their first exposure to anything like that,” Howard said. “My daughter Hannah doesn’t understand why someone did something like that. It’s hard for a child to understand that someone can irrationally hate you.”

Instead of immediately painting over the swastika, temple members decided to leave it untouched. Next to it, they placed a sign inviting residents to join them in painting over it on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

“We didn’t just want to cover it up as if it never happened,” temple President David R. Feigin said. “A swastika represents people’s lives being taken. We wanted to make a statement that this sort of thing is unacceptable in Ojai. We wanted to paint over it as a community. Everyone is invited to bring a brush.”

This weekend’s incident is the first time the 2-year-old temple has been the focus of anti-Semitism, Feigin said.

Temple leaders said they are unsure whether the vandalism was done out of genuine hatred or ignorance of the symbol’s legacy. “Whatever motivated it, it’s bad news,” Howard said.

The Sheriff’s Department and the FBI are treating the incident as a felony hate crime. Anyone with information is asked to call Det. Maureen Hookstra in Ojai at 646-1414.