Vandal scrawls ‘Palestine’ on wall of NYC’s Park Avenue Synagogue
An anti-Israel vandal targeted yet another Jewish landmark in New York City, this time etching “Palestine” onto one of Manhattan’s largest synagogues.
The defacing was discovered on the outside wall of the Park Avenue Synagogue around noon Friday, the NYPD said.
“Palestine” was scrawled under the biblical verse “How great are your tents O Jacob, your dwelling places O Israel,” photos show.
The vandal did not cross out the word Israel, but wrote Palestine in green marker beneath it.
Police were called and took pictures of the graffiti for evidence before it was cleared, sources said.
The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating, but no arrests have been made.
“Today Park Avenue Synagogue was vandalized. As a former member of this congregation, I am disgusted by this vile antisemitic act. A house of worship is a sanctuary. Defacing it is an attack on all of us,” City Councilmember Julie Menin wrote on X.
The popular conservative synagogue has been particularly outspoken amid the Israel-Hamas war, with its Rabbi, Elliot Cosgrove, even traveling in December to “bear witness” to one of the kibbutzim ravaged in the Oct. 7 attack.
Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff visited the congregation in May to discuss “Jewish pride and the steps he’s taken to fight the rise of antisemitism,” the Rabbi said on Instagram.
The Park Avenue Synagogue vandalization comes just days after multiple protesters smeared red paint across buildings across the city, including a Palestinian mission, a luxury Upper East Side building and Brooklyn Museum’s Jewish director and a number of its board members.
On Wednesday, three disguised men — including one who has racked up several arrests in the last two months — stood outside the Jewish State’s consulate and burned two American flags and an Israeli flag.
