Anti-Semitic Vandals Desecrate Temple

Vandals spray-painted anti-Semitic slogans and obscenities late Tuesday or early Wednesday on a Jewish temple in West Hills, providing a timely example for city officials launching a campaign against racially or religiously oriented “hate crimes.”

A janitor discovered the graffiti Wednesday morning, painted at about 15 places on the outside walls, doors and signs at the Temple Solael, in the 6600 block of Valley Circle Boulevard, Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Bill Morgan said.

“I’ve never seen anything as disgusting as that in my whole life,” Rabbi Bernard Cohen said.

The discovery came only hours before Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and Police Chief Daryl F. Gates were scheduled to hold a news conference at City Hall to call for more intensive police monitoring of what they called hate crimes. Gates incorporated the incident at the West Hills temple into the presentation, calling it “exactly the kind of thing that breeds fear in this community.”

Police investigators and temple officials said they had no idea who defaced the building, and no group has claimed responsibility.

“I can’t imagine it being one person,” Cohen said. “There’s too much damage done. It looks like a whole slew of people came in and had an experience.”

Joan Posley, president of the temple’s congregation, said removing the graffiti would probably cost several thousand dollars. “The bottom line is we’ll have to go to our congregation” for the money.

Cohen said a door of the temple was spray-painted about two years ago. About 10 years ago, someone broke into Cohen’s office and set a fire that caused more than $20,000 damage, he said.