Tarzana, CA – Synagogue Beis David set to open for the first time today was attacked by vandals, who scrawled anti-Semitic slurs on its windows and left a mound of burning debris at its back entrance.
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Firefighters found a burning pile of carpet pieces and cardboard set at the back entrance of the newly converted Orthodox synagogue on Clark Street. A sprinkler system had doused some of the flames, but the oak doors of the synagogue were charred.
“It is definitely being looked at as a hate crime,” said Investigator Thomas Derby of the Los Angeles Fire Department, which is part of the House of Worship Task Force, a multi-agency unit that includes the Los Angeles Police Department, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Vandals had also left pieces of paper hanging out of the tailpipe of one of the trucks parked in the back lot, perhaps to set it on fire, and tore out plants from a nearby flower bed. The Synagogue suffered about $9,000 in damage but still plans to open today.
No arrests have been made.