‘Jesus Wins’ graffitied on Greece synagogue and Holocaust monument

Incident takes place in northern town of Larissa, male suspect holding up a sign with Christian religious symbols flees scene before he can be caught

Cnaan Liphshiz is The Times of Israel's Jewish World reporter

The aftermath of anti-Semitic vandalism at the synagogue of Larissa, Greece, Dec. 3, 2020. (Courtesy of the Jewish Community of Larissa via JTA)
The aftermath of anti-Semitic vandalism at the synagogue of Larissa, Greece, Dec. 3, 2020. (Courtesy of the Jewish Community of Larissa via JTA)

JTA — An unidentified man spray-painted the words “Jesus Wins” in black on the walls of a synagogue in Greece and a nearby Holocaust monument.

The incident Thursday in Larissa, in northern Greece, was reported immediately to police but the man fled before he could be apprehended. Witnesses described the man as middle-aged, and said he was holding up a sign with Christian religious symbols.

Police are looking for the man, the Jewish Community of Larissa reported on its website.

In 1944, Nazi occupation forces rounded up the Jews of Larissa and nearby Trikala and imprisoned them in a military garage. They and the Jews of Ioannina were sent to be murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Only a handful of Larissa Jews survived, according to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum.

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