Anti-Semitic slur carved into door of California synagogue

Temple Mishkon Tephilo in Venice area of Los Angeles defaced with the word ‘Jude,’ leading local rabbi to draw comparison with Nazi Germany

By ToI Staff 14 August 2019, 10:12 am

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Demonstrators carrying signs in protest to racism walk along Main Street in the Venice beach area of Los Angeles on Saturday, August 19, 2017. (AP/Richard Vogel)

Illustrative image: Demonstrators carrying signs in protest to racism walk along Main Street in the Venice beach area of Los Angeles on Saturday, Aug. 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

A California synagogue was defaced this weekend when a Star of David and the word “Jude” were carved into its wooden door, The Jewish Journal reported.

Rabbi Gabriel Botnick of Temple Mishkon Tephilo in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Venice told the paper that police called him to inform him that someone had been seen etching the anti-Semitic graffiti into the door on Saturday.

“It’s somewhat typical in [Nazi] Germany and what people would do to Jewish businesses,” he said of the incident. “Seeing ‘Jude’ written on there as clearly a neo-Nazi-type term… that was very upsetting to me. That’s not anything I’ve ever encountered in this neighborhood.”

The term Jude, which is German for Jew, has pejorative connotations and is frequently used as a racial slur.

It was daubed on Jewish businesses by the Nazis as part of their economic boycott of their country’s Jewish community in the 1930s.