Jerusalem Reform synagogue vandalized over Shabbat: ‘Won’t dim our light’

The Kol HaNeshama synagogue in Jerusalem’s Baka neighborhood was vandalized overnight Friday-Saturday, the congregation says.

Several youths breached the synagogue grounds, broke a window, entered through it and tore a Pride flag in the main sanctuary, “damaging a work of art that hangs there,” the congregation says in a statement.

Kol HaNeshama’s Rabbi Debi Shou-Haim tells The Times of Israel that there were no members of the congregation in the synagogue at the time of the attack, which security camera footage placed at about half past midnight early Saturday.

The congregation filed a complaint with police, which on Saturday sent a detective to take prints and view security camera footage, she says.

A still frame from the footage, published online by the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, shows at least three youths breached the synagogue grounds.

Police say that “upon receiving the report, police launched an investigation, in which several actions are being carried out and all lines of inquiry are being examined.” The police decline to elaborate, citing the ongoing investigation.

בלילה בין שישי לשבת, בשעה שבה התפרץ בריון להיכל התפילה של בית הכנסת הרפורמי במנהטן, התפרצה חבורת צעירים בריונים לאולם התפילה של קהילת "כל הנשמה" בירושלים, אחת מהקהילות המוכרות והמובילות בעולם היהודי הליברלי.

באישון לילה הם ניפצו את הזכוכית, נכנסו אל תוך אולם התפילה, השחיתו… pic.twitter.com/A4Y4e1KOBD

— גלעד קריב (@KarivGilad) August 16, 2026

Kol HaNeshama, one of about 50 progressive Jewish synagogues in Israel, has long suffered anti-Reform animus, including two similar acts of vandalism in 2023.

“Vandalism and violence won’t dim our light,” the congregation says. “We hope enforcement authorities quickly find the criminals and bring them to justice.”

Democrats MK Gilad Kariv, a Reform rabbi who directed the progressive Judaism movement before entering Knesset, calls the vandals “incited hooligans” and accuses the government of “fostering gratuitous hatred and delegitimization of liberal Jewish denominations.”

He also notes that the vandalism at Kol HaNeshama took place at roughly the same time an assailant attacked a congregant and a guard at Manhattan’s Central Synagogue, one of the largest Reform synagogues in the world.