Two men and a boy were arrested today after anti-Semitic spray-painted messages were discovered on the exterior signs of two Jewish institutions in Pikesville over the weekend, Baltimore County police said.
One of the men is a member of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation in the 5500 block of Slade Ave,. where the word Nazi and a swastika were spray-painted on signs, said Cpl. Michael Hill, a police spokesman. Signs at Beth Tfiloh Community School in the 3300 block of Old Court Road were similarly defaced.
The incidents are not being treated as hate crimes, Hill said, but he would not discuss a motive for the vandalism. Police are withholding the identities of the men until they are charged, he said. They could face misdemeanor charges of destruction of property and damaging property of a religious entity, Hill said.
An officer responding to an unrelated incident noticed a car leaving the Beth Tfiloh Community School parking lot about 3 a.m. Sunday and police were later able to locate the vehicle and its three occupants, Hill said.
Black paint was used in both incidents, which occurred less than a mile apart. The incidents took place days before the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur and had been investigated as possible hate crimes.
(Source: The Baltimore Sun)
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7 Responses
Your title is not worded properly.
Umm…one of the vandals was a Jew? I don’t understand.
Hmmm…”a member of the congregation”? Are they referring to a member of the reform congregation, or a member of the black church whose members have been bussed in every week during the last year so that they could hold services at the reform congregation since their church burned down a year ago?
A more appropriate name than Baltimore Hebrew Congregation (BHC) is “Baltimore Hebrew Church”, or even “Black Hebrew Church”.
In Baltimore it is known as BAHA”K for obvious reasons
5, I was waiting for that one. Let’s just say this: if, ch”v something to the right of Beth Tefiloh gets vandalized, don’t we want BHC to be in it with and for us? And how about asking Partners in Torah or Rabbi Porter, etc. if they have anyone from these congregations looking for a mentor?
tzippi- you’re right that there are some times when we may need to have achdus with the frey but only if they’re really yidden. unfortunately in that “temple” they consider anyone who’s father is Jewish but mother is a goy to be Jewish. from the remaining ones whose mothers are jewish it could be that those mother’s are considered jewish only because their fathers are jewish . . . so you see that it’s quite questionable how many of there members could halachically be considered Jewish. so yes I’m sorry their “temple” (it’s not a shul) was vandalized but to promote achdus is pas nisht unless we know their all yidden shlaimim min hatorah.