Police in Beverly Hills are investigating a break-in and vandalism overnight at one of the city’s largest Iranian-Jewish synagogues as a hate crime.
The break-in happened around 2 a.m. Saturday at the Nessah synagogue on Rexford Drive, according to the Beverly Hills Police Department. The synagogue was closed for the rest of Shabbos and was expected to open back up on Sunday.
Several rooms inside the building were ransacked and Sifrei Torah and Seforim were damaged but the outside of the building didn’t suffer any severe damage. Police added that no markings or other signs of anti-Semitism were left by the suspect who was captured on security footage but it would still be investigated as a hate crime.
“This cowardly attack hits us at the heart of who we are as a community. It’s not just an attack on the Jewish community of Beverly Hills, it’s attack on all of us,” said Mayor John Mirisch.
The suspect is described as a white man in his early 20s with short dark curly hair. Surveillance video shows the suspect carrying a backpack and pulling a rolling suitcase.
Authorities also believe the suspect is responsible for several other acts of vandalism to nearby buildings.
Anyone with information with is asked to contact Beverly Hills police at (310) 285-2125.
(AP)
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10 Responses
AGAIN???
We will all have to start thinking about making plans to leave america. This is already becoming the new norm.
its very disturbing seeing sifrei torah in such disrespectful way. i’m not sure if its proper to post these pictures. perhaps its not bekovedik for the sifrei torah. i would like to ask you to please remove these pictures.
The other news sites are all reporting that the Sifrei Torah were not damaged as they were locked up.
Are the pictures here authentic or really of some other tragedy?
Oy vey, I’m crying.
They appear to be Ashkenazi not Sefardi Sifrei Torah.
Umm silentmoishe i dont think these pictures above are authentic i live in LA on this is a sefardic shul and the news reported that the sefrei torah were not touched at all. It sound like they are YWN is trying to blow up the story as i have see they do many times.
Be grateful to Hashem that this time his wrath was expended on objects and not lives as in Jersey City. Do you honestly think such events occur outside HIs control? We need to look inwards and see what WE need to do to fix what is wrong in our communities. I have seen widows in Lakewood, Monsey and elsewhere treated with disdain and contempt. Last week before the horrible event in Jersey City I read on a business site of the mistreatment of a the widow of a rebbe of children. Are we going to keep crying how anti-semitic the world is or will we root out the eveil from within our midst so Hashem will protect us from the anti-semites as he protected the children from them in Jersey City?
i dont undrtstand pick up the sifrei torah then take pictures
The video at the end of the article says the perpetrator was arrested, but if you watch it, no one was arrested. So it’s not just YWN that uses misleading headlines.
The authorities said several Jewish relics were damaged, but “the main synagogue scrolls” weren’t touched. Perhaps there’s a bet medrash with Ashkenaz sifrei Torah and that’s where the vandalism occurred.