Bat Yam synagogue daubed with swastikas

Swastikas were painted onto the walls of a synagogue in the coastal city of Bat Yam in the latest in a series of attacks on synagogues across the country.

The warden of the Ha’Ohel synagogue, Miki Moshkovitz, found the offensive symbols Wednesday morning and immediately called the police.

“For how long must we feel that we are still in exile?” Moshkovitz said to the Maariv daily. “This is the fourth time in a month.”

According to Maariv, the synagogue was established by Holocaust survivors. Moskovitz, the son of a survivor, suffered a panic attack after finding the swastikas and required attention from a medic. Police launched an investigation of the incident.

A month ago the synagogue suffered a similar attack when crosses and the phrase “whorehouse” was scrawled on the walls. At the time, a school in the city was also vandalized.

At the beginning of May two other synagogues in the city were similarly defaced, and last week a synagogue in Haifa was graffitied with swastikas and sexually explicit markings.