A swastika and the words “Iraq” and “Hamas” were painted on the wall of a west Miami-Dade temple overnight into Monday.
The vandalism was done on the wall right next to the front door and just weeks before the holy day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
“Scared right now,” said congregant Paulino Carlo. “This context, it’s very scared because we are having the festival in maybe two weeks, very scared.”
The vandalism was the third anti-Semitic incident in less than two months in South Florida. In late July, the columns outside a North Miami Beach synagogue were defaced with red spray paint. Swastikas and the words “Hamas” framed the front entrance.
The weekend before the North Miami Beach incident, a Miami Beach home was targeted. One car was egged in multiple places and another was damaged by cream cheese. The words “Jew” and “Hamas” were smeared in two different areas.
Both incidents were at the peak of tensions between Israel and Hamas over the summer.
