By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
Three weeks after the fact, the paint has been scrubbed and the memory of the vandalism on two Seward Park synagogues has somewhat faded in light of the High Holidays, but police have yet to find a perpetrator to the crime that occurred Sept. 12.
Still, for some members of Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath, the discovery of swastikas spray painted on their synagogue and the parking lot after Selichot services on Sept. 12 hit an especially raw nerve.
“It’s upsetting, it’s disturbing, it’s unfortunate there are people who hate for the sake of hate, and of course it makes it even more reprehensible given that there are a number of Holocaust survivors that are members of the congregation,” said Moshe Kletenik, BCMH’s rabbi. “I’m a child of Holocaust survivors who are the only survivors of their families.”
The red paint was still fresh when members of the Seward Park neighborhood’s Orthodox Ashkenazic synagogue discovered the graffiti, which included the swastikas and the word “Nazi” and the words “4th Riech,” misspelled.
Sephardic Bikur Holim, which is located across the street from BCMH, and a few neighbors’ homes were vandalized as well.
Seattle police responded immediately and turned investigation over to its bias crimes unit, which is investigating the vandalism as malicious harassment, the term for Washington’s hate crimes statute.
According to Seattle Police spokesman Mark Jamieson on Wednesday, the case is still under investigation.
“It is very much an active and ongoing investigation,” he said.
Kletenik said he has been heartened by the police response.
“I can only praise their efforts here,” he said. “They have given this full attention and are working very hard on it.”
According to Rabbi Simon Benzaquen of Sephardic Bikur Holim, neighbors both Jewish and non-Jewish came out with cleaning supplies, and he’s gotten e-mails from area churches expressing support after the incident.
Even the Seattle Times wrote an editorial Sept. 14 demanding the perpetrators, if arrested, be judged swiftly and harshly.
Rabbi Benzaquen said response to the vandalism from his congregants was varied.
“A little bit, [it] makes you upset and angry, and on the other hand makes you a bit afraid,” he said, but the police and security response “was fantastic.”
Benzaquen said Seattle interim Police Chief John Diaz “called me on Sunday himself and said, ‘Please, you should know how we feel about your community. We are really taking this very, very seriously, and we are going to get to the bottom of it.’”
Like Rabbi Kletenik, Benzaquen said the nature of the vandalism evoked strong reactions among some members of his congregation because they are Holocaust survivors or have relatives who survived the Holocaust,
“Some are fearful, some are angry, some — they want to do something,” he said. But “we have our heads on our shoulders and we are trusting the police are going to do a good job.”
Synagogue leadership has met with a local security expert who is a member of the congregation, Benzaquen said, and its security committee has used the incident as an opportunity to remember to be vigilant and work on keeping its members safe. He has noticed additional patrols in the area since the incident.
Both synagogues are also members of the SAFE Washington network, a consortium of local Jewish organizations that have a quick-response notification system in the event of any type of incident.
Richard Fruchter, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, which administers SAFE Washington, noted the vandalism could have been related to an article in the Seattle Times that day about the start of the retrial of Naveed Haq, the man who shot six people in the Federation three years ago, killing one.
“Sadly we have been here before — and we are prepared. With a strong communication network, regular security trainings and open lines of communication with the police, we are doing all we can as a community to stay vigilant,” he said in a statement. “None of us should pretend that anti-Semitism does not exist. But neither should we stop expressing or celebrating our Judaism.”
Jay De Boer, president of the Washington Interfaith Disaster Recovery Organization, signed a resolution on Sept. 15 decrying the acts of vandalism, noting: “It is resolved that WIDRO condemns the racist, prejudiced criminal acts of those responsible for this desecration and calls on all law enforcement agencies with jurisdiction to use their best efforts to apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators.” The member churches and organizations also extended prayers to the synagogues and others affected by the vandalism.
Sarah Rivkin, a member of BCMH, saw the timing of the vandalism as something of a spiritual wake-up call.
“For myself, being in a religious community, we read into things on a spiritual level. Not to give this person any power, or to say that we’re victims, but what is this…telling us?” she said. “We shouldn’t have to have messages like this…. Inspiration should come from ourselves, from inside, from learning, not from attacks like this.”