SECOND SYNAGOGUE VANDALIZED IN HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA, DAYS AFTER THE FIRST

Swastikas, anti-Semitic graffiti scrawled onChabad of Huntsville during Passover, after neo-Nazis earlier targeted another shul in US

By MARCY OSTER, Times of Israel

Photo Caption: ZERO TOLERANCE: Mayor Battle expressed sadness and anger over the second incident of anti-Semitic vandalism against members of Huntsville’s Jewish community during Passover. Police Chief Mark McMurray assured the public law enforcement is working to find those who committed the hate crimes and that they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. As the Chief spoke to media, volunteers from local churches were working to paint over the offensive graffiti. The Mayor said, “We will stand by this family, and this community will protect our Jewish brothers and sisters.”

JTA — A second US synagogue has been vandalized in Huntsville, Alabama, days after another one was plastered with anti-Semitic slurs.

The Chabad of Huntsville was spray-painted with swastikas and what local media described as anti-Semitic graffiti and racial slurs on Thursday night.

Surveillance video showed an unidentified suspect painting on the synagogue’s property for about 20 minutes. The graffiti was painted on the organization’s driveway, garage doors, a mailbox and more.

On Wednesday night, the Etz Chayim Synagogue, a Conservative congregation of about 60 families in South Huntsville, was vandalized with neo-Nazi graffiti.

“If the intention of the hate crime was to bring hate and division in our midst, he failed miserably. Instead, we have a wonderful showing of togetherness and love that I know to be the true character of our community. Our friends and neighbors have been wonderful, and the community at large has certainly turned an act of hate into an outpouring of love,” Chabad directors Rabbi Moshe and Mushky Cohen wrote in a post on Facebook on Saturday night, at the end of the Passover holiday and Shabbat.

The graffiti was removed by powerwashing on Friday.