Three minors arrested after repeated vandalization of Jerusalem Reform synagogue

Three minors from Jerusalem have been arrested over their alleged involvement in damaging a synagogue in the city’s Baka neighborhood, authorities said Wednesday.

While police did not name the synagogue, the arrests follow repeated incidents of vandalism against the Reform Kol HaNeshama synagogue, including over Yom Kippur earlier this week.

Police said they will request the suspects be kept in custody at an arraignment scheduled for Wednesday.

Assailants tore through a window screen of the congregation on Saturday night, just hours before the start of Yom Kippur, throwing a plate inside that shattered. A suspect also returned Sunday night to rip down an LGBTQ pride flag in the synagogue, and provocateurs showed up Monday morning to mock congregants and leadership at the synagogue during Yom Kippur, synagogue officials said.

Those incidents followed attacks on the synagogue over Rosh Hashanah as well as earlier this year. Although security cameras captured the faces of the alleged perpetrators in the earlier incidents and footage was handed over to police, no suspects were apprehended until Wednesday.

A week before the Yom Kippur attack, youths dressed in religious clothing egged Kol HaNeshama congregants during Rosh Hashanah. Surveillance footage showed they entered a building opposite the synagogue and returned with eggs that they then threw at congregants as they arrived at the synagogue, said Debi Shoua Haim, a rabbi at the synagogue.

Shoua Haim told JTA last week that the suspects threw the eggs after making comments that “were homophobic and bordered on harassment,” adding: “They were met with openness by everyone they spoke with, and it is unfortunate that this was their response.”

In August, trespassers also smashed a window, damaged art and tore down pride flags inside the building after breaking in. Police did not specify if the suspects arrested this week were believed to be involved in all or some of the incidents.

Attacks have also been reported recently at other Reform congregations in Israel, raising alarm among community leaders. The incidents have prompted Reform leaders to warn of escalating hostility toward their communities.

Days after the first Kol HaNeshama incident in August, the Darchei Noam Reform synagogue in Ramat Hasharon was also vandalized, with assailants throwing rocks at the building and smashing a window at its entrance.

Gilad Kariv, a Reform rabbi and a Knesset member in The Democrats party, condemned the latest attack on social media.

“This hateful attack is the direct result of the rampant incitement against Reform Judaism in Israel and against anyone who believes that no establishment or stream has a monopoly on Judaism,” he wrote in English on Tuesday.

“There is no surprise in the fact that not a single figure in the coalition or the government has issued a condemnation,” Kariv added. “Our response must be a clear commitment to promoting freedom of religion and conscience, abolishing the chief rabbinate’s monopoly, separating religion from state, and granting full recognition to all streams of Judaism.”