Reform synagogue in Ra'anana defaced with graffiti

"No place for you in the next world," vandals spray; not first attack on synagogue, police investigating the matter.

By BEN HARTMAN
Grafitti on Reform synagogue in Ra'anana. (photo credit: COURTESY ISRAEL POLICE)
Grafitti on Reform synagogue in Ra'anana.
(photo credit: COURTESY ISRAEL POLICE)
Unknown vandals sprayed graffiti on the exterior wall of a reform synagogue in Ra’anana, Sharon subdistrict police said on Thursday.
The graffiti, which was discovered on Thursday morning, was written in large blue and red spray paint on the outside wall of the Kehilat Ra’anan synagogue.
The vandalism referenced rulings by the Rambam on nonbelievers.
The incident marks the latest in a series of vandalisms against the synagogue, including once in April 2011, when an unknown assailant broke six windows on two sides of the synagogue and spray-painted a Star of David and the words “it has begun” on an exterior wall.
Police have opened an investigation into the latest incident.
The Israel Religious Action Center sent out a press release in which the Executive Director of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism (IMPJ), Rabbi Gilad Kariv, said: “This ‘price tag’ incident will not deter us from serving the public of thousands of families in Ra’anana that are interested in Judaism that is tolerant and practices equality.”
The statement also quotes Kehilat Ra’anan’s Rabbi Tamar Kolberg as saying, “It’s hard to grasp the depth of the trauma caused by the sight of the graffiti on the walls of the Kehilat Ra’anan building. I call on the Israeli community to awaken from its slumber and take steps to bring an educational and social revolution that will allow all of us a meaningful Jewish way of life based on the greater worldview shown in the Torah.”